


Five times that Natasha Romanoff was there for Peter Parker and the two times he was there for her

by marvelouswritings



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2019-11-07 08:04:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17956742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelouswritings/pseuds/marvelouswritings
Summary: Natasha Romanoff has always had a soft spot for Peter Parker, she takes him under her wing when his Aunt has to move to Europe for work and he wants to finish high school. The two grow attached to each other and this is the story of five times that Natasha Romanoff was there for Peter Parker and the two times he was there for her.Alternate UniverseClintasha is cannon here





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pastellcutie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pastellcutie/gifts).



“Pete we should finish now. I don't want you late for school.” Natasha said going over to where Peter was sitting on the bench. 

“We could go a little longer. I could rush getting ready.” He tried to bargain but Natasha could tell something was wrong. 

“You'll miss your train Peter. We can come back to it after you finish your homework.” Natasha said patting him on the back. 

“Nat…” 

“Yeah Peter?” She asked while walking over to the door to signal to him to get out. 

“Never mind. It doesn't matter.” He said shaking his head and walking through the door. 

His head was hung low and Natasha had no doubt that something was wrong at school. This was the third day in a row that he had tried to convince her to let him be late to school. She kept the thought in the back of her head as she went down for a shower then to make sure Peter actually got to school. 

Peter followed the same routine as Natasha did, only going much slower. He didn't want to go to school, he didn't want to have to put up with Flash and his bullying. As Peter stepped in the shower he let the water wash over him and he tried to have some hope that today would be a good day. 

Natasha stepped out of the shower and saw Clint on the other side of the room getting ready for the day. 

“Morning Tasha.” Clint called when he turned his head and noticed her. 

“Morning.” She grabbed her clothes and started to change, Clint could tell there was something on her mind. 

“Everything ok Tash?” 

“Have you noticed something's been off with Peter?” She asked him ignoring his question and getting to the real issue. 

“Well he's been pretty quiet the last few days. He looks like he has something on his mind. A few days ago he asked if I could pick him up early from school. I told him I couldn't and he seemed upset.” Clint told her without thinking much of it. 

“Something isn't right with him. He loves school. Well as much as any teenager can.” Natasha said mostly to herself but Clint heard her. 

“Maybe he misses his aunt. She's been gone for what five months now?” He asked. 

“I don't think that's it. They call each other every day, and he facetimes with her every morning.” 

“Well I think he'll be alright. The kid has seemed to grow on you the past couple months.” Clint noticed while going to give her a hug. 

“Yeah. He's a good kid.” She said with a smile and kissed Clint. 

“Morning Peter. How was your training with Nat this morning?” Steve asked when Peter walked out of the elevator and into the kitchen with his headphones on. 

Peter didn't notice or hear Steve and grabbed a granola bar from the cabinet. He checked his phone and noticed if he didn't get going soon he would be late and Natasha and Tony both wouldn't be very happy with him. 

Peter looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath, Steve noticed and walked over to him, putting his hand on Peter's shoulder. 

“Hey kid. Everything alright?” He asked and Peter pulled out his headphones. 

“Yeah. No Cap everything's great. I'm just running a little late that's all. I've got to run, but I'll be back after patrol.” Peter lied wiggling out of Steve's grasp and into the elevator where he met Nat. Steve noticed something was off about Peter, but figured Nat or Tony would help him with it. He would still keep an eye on him though. 

“Pete, is everything ok at school?” Natasha asked him while he was trapped in the elevator. 

“What? Oh Yeah. Um. Everything's fine. Just got a lot of classes.” He knew he was lying to the wrong person and he could tell Nat knew he was lying. 

“Peter. Don’t lie to me. What’s wrong?” 

“It’s nothing Nat. I don’t want to talk about it.” he grumbled. 

Natasha sighed, she was going to figure out what was going on and try to fix it. “Are you going over to Ned’s after school?”

“No. I’ve got patrol tonight.” He said rushing out of the elevator and running through the lobby of the tower. 

Natasha watched him runoff and after a bit decided to follow him. She called Clint and he picked up on the first ring. 

“Yeah Nat. What’s wrong?” 

“Get down to the lobby and bring the car keys, we’re going to follow Peter to school. Something isn’t right there and I want to figure it out before he gets home.” She ordered. 

“Which car are we taking?” 

“Take the Jeep. I want to keep a low profile, if Peter sees the Corvette he will know we are following him.” She said watching him cross the street from the lobby. 

“Yes ma'am.” Clint teased. 

Natasha smirked and hung up the phone. A few minutes later Clint was down with the keys in hand. Clint followed Natasha to the garage and got in the driver’s seat. Natasha climbed in the passenger and Clint knew that Natasha was worried.

“Hey. Nat, he’s going to be ok. He’s a good kid and he can handle himself.” He said putting his hand over hers as they drove. 

“I know. He’s been through a lot though, and since Tony has been busy with Pepper, I don’t want him to be alone.” She said quietly. 

“He knows he isn’t alone Nat. Yesterday he asked me if you would be ok with him calling you Aunt Nat and calling me Uncle Clint. We should probably tell him we’re engaged soon.” Clint said looking at the necklace Natasha was wearing, he had given it to her with her engagement ring so that she could wear it and no one would ask any questions. 

Natasha smiled. She figured she would tell him tonight when he got home from school, maybe they could take him out to dinner and tell him. They arrived to the school just behind Peter and Natasha rolled down the window to see better. 

“Look everybody! It’s Penis Parker! The poor little orphan!” Flash yelled as his goons surrounded Peter and sprayed shaving cream all over him. 

Clint saw every muscle in Natasha’s body clench she put her hand on the door handle and Clint pulled her back. 

“Natasha, we can’t fight his battles for him. He can handle himself.” Clint said watching Peter who was furious and embarrassed. His best friend watched from the sidelines and tried to defend Peter, but he was no match and the bullies just started making fun of Ned as well. 

“Clint.” 

“Not yet Tash. Let’s wait and see what he does.” 

Peter looked around and looked at his clothes, his outfit was ruined and he would need a change of clothes, the bell rang and everyone went off laughing Peter just stood there with fury and embarrassment in his eyes. 

“Clint.” 

“I'm calling him now.” Clint sighed and pulled out his phone, dialing Peter as he went. 

They watched Peter pull out his phone and look even more dejected. “Hello?” He asked into the phone. 

“Turn around Peter. See the Jeep?” Clint asked. 

“You guys saw that?” He asked with his voice cracking. 

“Come on Pete. We'll take you home.” Natasha said while it was on speaker phone. 

Peter hung up the phone and tried to get all of the shaving cream off that he could and walked to the car. Natasha got out of the car to meet him. 

“So. You want to tell me what's going on now?” Natasha asked getting a towel out of the back and handing it to him. 

“I'm sorry Nat.” He whispered, he was so embarrassed he couldn't even look at her. 

Natasha sighed and wrapped him in a towel and put another on the seat. “Let's go get you cleaned up and you can tell me what's been going on at breakfast.” She tried to take some of the shaving cream off of the top of his head. 

An hour later they were sitting at their favorite breakfast joint and Clint and Natasha were both staring at him intensely. 

“How long has Flash been doing that to you?” Natasha asked. 

“How do you know his name?” Peter asked shocked. 

“Peter it's better If you don't know.” Clint spoke up while looking at the menu. He glanced at Natasha's hand and saw that she was wearing her ring. 

“How long Peter?” Natasha asked again. 

“Since the beginning of the year. It keeps getting worse. It's not only me who he does it to. He does it to Ned too and there's nothing I can do about it.” Peter said hopelessly. 

“Peter every morning we train for you to take down criminals. I try and prepare you for any situation I can think of.” Natasha said incredulously. 

“It's not the same Aunt Nat…” Peter let slip the Aunt Nat and his eyes got all wide and his cheeks turned a bright shade of scarlet. 

“How isn't it the same?” Natasha asked, ignoring what he called her even though it made her smile and her heart warm. She hoped by her ignorance he would continue to call her that. 

“Flash isn't a criminal, he's just a school bully. He's a bad person who won't amount to anything. It isn't right for me to use my powers and strengths on him.” Peter said shaking his head. 

Natasha smiled and Clint beamed with pride. 

“Well maybe we'll just have to fix how he treats you and Ned more subtlety.” Natasha suggested while looking at the menu. 

Clint grabbed Natasha's hand under the table. All of them ordered and Clint spoke up afterwards. “So Pete. How's school been, well beside dealing with Flash.” 

Peter's face light up. “Well we have a trivia competition coming up at school and me, Ned, and MJ are entering as a team. I have two teachers and I ship them just as much as I ship you guys!” he exclaimed. 

Natasha looks at Clint and Clint looked at her. They communicated silently and Peter looked on. 

“I swear you guys are telepathic. Come on let me in on the secret.” Peter said with a genuine smile, whenever he was with them he always felt better. 

“Ok Peter, but you have to promise not to tell anyone Ok?” Clint said seriously and Natasha stared at Peter. 

“I promise I promise. Tell me tell me!” 

“Peter, me and Clint are engaged, but the other Avengers don't know yet, we just got engaged last week, so you can't tell them yet.” 

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Wait. Really? When?” 

“Yes we…” 

“No wait. Don't tell me Uncle Clint. Let me guess. Was it five days ago?” Peter asked, his problems with Flash were all but forgotten. 

“How did you know?” Natasha asked. 

“Well Uncle Clint told me that you guys were going out that night, but he didn't tell me why and he was jumpy the entire day, I actually saw him not hit the center of a bullseye.” Peter reasoned as the food came. 

“You missed?” Natasha asked Clint with a smile. 

“It wasn't really a miss. I was an inch off, they still would have been dead.” Clint brushed off. 

“Yeah ok Hawkeye.” She said and then kissed him on the cheek. 

Peter smiled and forgot all about that morning, when they finished eating they went back to the tower and hung out the whole day. When Peter went to sleep Clint and Natasha came up with a plan to make sure Flash wouldn't bully Peter like that again. 

Peter woke up the next morning filled with dread. Natasha had cancelled their morning training session because they had gotten one in during the day yesterday when he had missed school. He went through the motions of getting dressed and ready for school, he called Aunt May just like he always did, he went down to the kitchen and saw Natasha making breakfast. 

“Good morning Aunt Nat?” Peter asked when he saw her cooking. 

“Marning Peter. I made breakfast for you.” She said handing him a plate. 

“Not that I'm not grateful, but since when do you cook?” He asked.

Natasha laughed softly, but she didn't say anything she just smiled. 

“Where is everyone?” Peter asked noticing no one else was in the tower even though it was usually bustling with Avengers. 

“Just finish your breakfast, and grab your stuff for school. I'm taking you today.” 

“What?” Peter asked. 

“You might want to hurry Peter, it's getting a little late.” She said looking at the clock. 

“Wait. You're taking me to school?” He asked again. 

“Yes. Get your stuff let's go.” Natasha said grabbing the keys. 

Petter grabbed his backpack and almost tripped because he was so nervous. He had already been embarrassed this week and he didn’t know how the rest of the school would react to him being dropped off by the Black Widow. 

Peter stepped in the elevator with Natasha and stood there awkwardly. Natasha had the keys to the Corvette in her hand and Peter was getting more and more anxious. 

“Pete. You’re going to be fine ok?” She said ruffling his hair. 

“Aunt Nat is this going to get you in trouble with the security council or with S.H.I.E.L.D? I don’t want you getting into trouble over something like this.”

“Don’t worry Pete. It’ll be fine.” Natasha said as they walked out of the elevator. 

Natasha and Peter got in the car and they sped off, they got to the school a little early, but their was still a crowd in front of the school. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the car, Flash stepped in front of the crowd when he saw Peter get out.

“Oh look Peter Parker had to call an Uber to take him to school so he wouldn’t be embarrassed to show his face here ever again!” Flash yelled and the crowd erupted with laughter. 

Peter took a deep breath and tried to ignore it, he didn’t want to bother Natasha anymore than he had the passed two days and hoped she didn’t hear Flash’s comment. 

Natasha heard, put the car in park and stepped out in all of her beauty. Her long, wavy, red hair flowed as she stepped out, her dark blue leather jacket and tight black jeans accentuated all of her curves. She had a lunch pail in her hand and walked over and handed it to Peter. 

Every single kid stared at her, the boys were fawning over, the girls wanted her confidence and envied her sense of style. Flash’s eyes were wide open and his jaw was almost on the floor. 

“You’re, you’re the Black Widow!” Flash yelled in awe. 

“Peter you forgot your lunch.” She purred, handing him the bag. 

“Thanks Aunt Nat.” He said with a soft smile. 

Natasha sauntered over to Flash and pushed his mouth closed. She leaned next to him and Peter giggled at Flash’s wet pants. 

“If you ever, do anything like what you pulled yesterday again. I will end you. Do you understand me?” She whispered, without any sense of kidding in her voice, Flash wet his pants out of fear and he lost all arousal from being that close to Natasha. 

“Yes. Yes ma'am.” he choked out with his voice as high pitched as a little girl’s. 

“Good.” Natasha whispered and stood up. She saw Ned looking on with shock and waved to him with a smirk. 

“Ned, do you want to come over to the tower for dinner and video games tonight?” She asked and then got back into the car and speed off back to the tower.


	2. 2

Peter came home from school and ran to his room. He slammed the door and slid down the other side of it. Natasha had just gotten out of a meeting with the world security council when Clint called her. 

“Hi Natasha.” Clint sighed. 

“Clint what’s going on?” She asked him stepping into an empty hallway so she could hear better. 

“So, um, how do I say this? Peter is locked in his room, won’t talk to anyone and he’s been crying for the past two hours.” Clint said awkwardly. 

“Did Tony try talking to him?” Natasha said getting in her car and putting Clint on speaker phone. 

“Tony is currently sitting outside of Peter’s room trying to get him to open the door.” 

“What about Steve?” She asked pulling out of the parking garage. 

“He offered to take Peter out for ice cream and then to Coney Island to talk about history, and that did nothing.” He explained. 

“Shit. What about Sam?” 

“Sam offered to go pick up Ned and put on a Star Wars marathon for the two of them and at least got a response of “No” out of him.” 

“What did you say?” She asked him as she pulled onto the freeway. 

“I asked him how school was when he walked in and then he ran to his room and locked everyone out. Then I told him that you would be home soon. It was the happiest he’s sounded since this morning.”

“I’ll be home in an hour, let him know that I want to get a training session in when I get there.” 

“Tasha is that really the best idea right now?” Clint asked her skeptically. 

“He loves training, I don’t think it could hurt, and if he says no then we know something is really really wrong.” 

“Ok Tash.” He said hanging up the phone and making his way down to Peter’s room from the kitchen. 

Tony had given up on trying to talk to Peter and was now sitting on the floor across from the door tinkering with Peter’s suit. 

“He gave you the suit?” Clint asked looking at it. 

“No. I took it from his room while he was at school to make some upgrades to it, Jarvis just told me he’s displaying symptoms of a panic attack, but I can’t get to him, and I can’t leave him, so I’m here.” Tony gestured to his makeshift workspace. 

“Didn’t you have something you needed to do today?” Clint asked him, halfway remembering that Tony had plans. 

“Yeah, I had a board meeting with the company executives, but I cancelled. Peter told me that he was fine, and that I could go, but I can’t leave him. Not when he’s very obviously not fine.” Tony said pointing to the door. 

“What did Natasha say when you told her?” Tony asked after a minute. 

“She told me to tell him that she’s on the way home, and that she wanted to get a training session in.” Clint said shaking his head. 

“Well, I mean, we’ve had worse ideas.” Tony said thinking back to what they tried half an hour ago. 

Clint smiled and knocked on the door. He knew he wasn’t going to get a response, but he thought it would at least get his attention. “Hey Pete. Natasha’s on her way home. She’ll be here in less than an hour and she said that she wanted to get a training session in when she got here.” 

“I don’t, I don’t know, I don’t, Natasha said.” Peter stuttered out through what Tony could tell was ragged breaths. 

“Kid you ok in there?” Tony asked coming up to the door. 

“I’m. I. I’m fine, Mr. Stark.” 

“Hey Pete, why don’t you open the door. We can talk about it.” Clint said. 

“No. I’m fine.” Peter obviously lied. 

“Ok Pete. Tasha will be home soon.” Clint said looking at Tony. Tony just shook his head and went back to tinkering on the floor. 

Clint went back to the kitchen and waited upstairs with Sam. When Natasha walked through the door Clint followed her to their room. Natasha closed the door behind him and started changing. 

“How was work Tash?” Clint asked her sitting on the bed. 

“It could have been better, the council is on my ass again, and Fury said he’s sending me out on another mission.” She replied putting on one of his shirts that she had taken. 

“I thought you had two weeks off.” Clint said looking at the calendar. 

“I was supposed to, Nick didn’t want to send me out again, it isn’t going to be a quick mission either, he figures if I’m out of the US for a while it will get the council off of my back.” Natasha said trying to avoid Clint and his gaze. 

“How long?” He asked, he knew it was part of her job, it was a part of their job, but it didn’t make Clint miss her any less whenever one of them was gone for a mission. 

“A month.” She looked up at him, she saw that he didn’t want her to go, and he was looking at her necklace. 

“I thought the council hadn’t cared since Sokovia.” Clint grabbed Natasha's hand and looked into her eyes. 

“They didn't, but after what happened I'm not surprised.” She whispered. 

“Did they find out about the engagement?” Clint asked quietly. 

“No there was…” Natasha was cut off by Tony's voice coming through the speaker. 

“Hey guys, I hate to interrupt this moment, but Pete is having another panic attack and I'm very close to breaking down the door in my suit to help him.” He announced. 

“Jarvis let Stark know I'm on the way.” She said while looking at Clint and communicating silently. 

“Go. The kid needs you.” He said giving her a kiss on her forehead. 

Natasha smiled and turned away, she made her way to Peter's room and found Tony waiting for her at the end of the hallway. 

“Natasha are you seriously going to go train with him?”Tony asked walking beside her.

“If he feels up to it.” She said knocking at the door. 

Tony nodded and made his way back down the hall and into the elevator. When Natasha didn't get a response she called out to Peter. 

“Kid I'm home, are you ready to go?” She asked. 

Natasha heard Peter's footsteps as he walked over to the door and opened it. 

Natasha looked at him and saw his bloodshot eyes, tear stained face, and utterly disastrous hair. She knew that whatever it is that had happened was close to terrible. 

“Hey Pete.” 

“Hey Aunt Nat.” He said trying to put on a brave face for her. 

Natasha pulled Peter into a hug and his crying resumed. Natasha could feel his pain in sobs, his head was buried in Natasha shoulder and he was shaking in her arms. Natasha pulled him away when he was gasping for air and his sobs had started to choke him. 

“Tell me what's wrong Peter.” She whispered. 

“There was a protest at school today. They were protesting against you and Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner and Uncle Clint. The. The kids want you arrested! They want them to take you away Aunt Nat. Aunt Nat I can't lose you too. I can't lose all of you! Please don't let them win! Please Aunt Nat! Don't leave!” Peter nearly yelled. 

“Peter calm down.” Natasha tried to reason. 

“I can't calm down Aunt Nat. They wanted you arrested. Ned told me your file leaked on the internet. You told me you had to meet with the security council today! You're going to be arrested aren't you?” He was yelling at Natasha and she had hoped that this wouldn't happen, but assumed it would eventually. 

“Peter. Calm down. Everything is going to be ok.” She told him, wiping away his tears. 

“You're lying. They're going to take you away aren't they? They're going to take Mr. Stark aren't they?”

“Peter, Tony isn't going anywhere. Me and Pepper aren't going to let him go anywhere, ok?” she soothed.

“What about you?” He asked desperately. 

“I just have to go away for a little bit. It's just for work kid. I'll be back when my mission's over.” She said gently, she could tell that all he could think was that she was going to leave him just like his aunt did, even though she didn't have choice. 

Peter walked over and sat on his bed. He put his head in his hands and tried to hide what he was thinking, but Natasha could read him like a book. 

“Pete. It's only for a month, ok? I'll be back as soon as I can.” She soothed running her hands through his hair, it always calmed down Clint when she did. 

“Aunt Nat. They were protesting you and Mr. Stark. After everything you've done for the world. They were so easy to turn on you. They didn't care about everything you've done. They didn't care.” Peter lamented. 

“That's just what happens Pete. The. The world…” she stuttered, she never had to explain what she had done to someone so young, someone who she wanted to protect from the horrors of her old life. 

“Peter look at me.” She pulled his hands away from his face and pulled his chin so that his tear filled eyes looked into her pain filled ones. 

“I've done some very horrible things in my life. I killed people, I have killed so many people, and before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D I didn't care. I did it because it was my job, it was my life. Ever since I was a little girl they taught me to murder people and never think twice about it.” 

“I've always known this would happen. I'm surprised that it took this long. I'm not making excuses for what I've done and I never will. I've murdered for as long as I can remember.” 

Natasha paused and took a breath. She didn’t know how to say what needed to be said to a kid who had already been through so much in life, a kid who Natasha cared about. 

“The government never wanted me as a part of S.H.I.E.L.D and the security council never wanted me as a part of the Avengers, most of the government still believes that I belong in a prison or handed back to Russia as a gift.”

“The public never exactly knew about me until the portion of my file leaked online. They knew who I was, but they didn’t know much about me. I have to deal with the backlash from this now. We all do. It’s part of our job as Avengers, our job as heroes. It’s something we all face at one point or another. We just have to find a way to deal with it.” 

“It’s not fair Aunt Nat. You didn’t do anything. You’ve saved the world so many times and they don’t even know, they don’t even acknowledge it.” 

“Peter life isn’t fair. It’s never going to be, so you need to pull your head out of fairytale land and get back to real life.” She ordered, she knew that he needed someone to be sensitive right now, but he also needed a reality check, he couldn’t keep thinking that everything was just going to work out because he wanted it to. 

Peter took a deep breath and pulled away from Natasha, no one had been that real with him since he had moved into the tower. Everyone was always trying to protect him and was letting him live in a fantasy world where things worked out for the heroes because they were the good guys, he hadn’t seen the real life of being a hero. 

“If you’re looking for an apology or someone to kiss your ass you can go talk to Cap or Sam. I care about you Peter, but that also means giving you a dose of reality when you need one.” She said standing up and looking at one of the posters on his wall. 

“Thank you.” He said. He had relaxed, the shock Natasha had given him was enough for him to stop throwing a pity party for himself and get to work. 

Natasha nodded and walked out of the door waiting for Peter to follow, when she didn’t she called out to him. “Kid you coming? We’ve got a training session.” 

Peter grabbed his hand wraps from his desk and followed Natasha. When they made their way down to the training room him and Natasha fell into their usual routine, cardio, agility, reaction time. Peter may have had super powers, but Natasha beat him every single time, he couldn’t understand how she did it. Natasha always watched him as he sparred with the dummies and the simulators in the room, correcting his form and teaching him one or two new moves to make him more efficient, but this time she stepped into the ring with him. 

“Are we learning a new move today?” He asked as he tied off his hand wrap exactly like she taught him. 

“No. We’re sparring.” She said plainly, taking off her workout jacket to reveal a tanktop and Peter saw the scars that were riddled over her arms for the first time and he couldn’t help but stare. When she turned around he saw that her back was even worse. 

When Natasha noticed Peter staring she turned to look at him. “Is something wrong Peter?” 

“Aunt Nat. Are all of those from the Red Room?” He asked mentioning his knowledge of them for the first time. Clint was the one who told him about them in case Natasha ever had an episode and he had to take care of her. 

“Most of them are. A few are from missions.” She responded nonchalantly. She had gotten used to people asking about them at this point, but she still liked to keep them covered when she could. 

Peter nodded and walked into the ring, he didn’t want to press the topic, he could tell she didn’t want to talk about it. 

Peter went after Natasha in the ring, but she blocked and parried everyone of his attacks with ease. After 15 minutes Peter was covered in sweat and Natasha had barely moved. After 30 minutes Natasha had Peter trapped and was upset that he had given up so easily. 

“Get yourself out of it.” She demanded holding him in place. 

“I can’t.” He struggled. 

“What’s that?” She asked. When Peter and Natasha trained she had one rule. Peter was not allowed to say ‘I can’t’. 

“I don’t know how.” He tried flipping himself, but that only made it worse. 

“Think, breathe, use your brain. What’s the first step?” She forced him to use his brain, Peter could lift buildings, but Natasha knew if he didn’t know how to use it he would wind up hurt or worse. 

“Wrists.” He said twisting them into position to break free. 

“What’s next?” 

“Arms.” 

“Good. Now what?” 

“Grab, pull, flip.” He said executing it, but Natasha easily landed on her feet and kicked his legs out from under him just as he had gotten up. 

“And what did I teach you?” She asked helping him up from the floor. 

“Always be prepared for your opponent to attack when you’re least expecting it.” He sighed leaning against the ring. 

Natasha smirked and looked at the clock, it was past 10:00 pm and Peter had school tomorrow and Natasha needed to report to headquarters at five the next morning for her flight. 

“Kid go get something to eat from the kitchen, then get to bed. It’s later than I expected.” 

Peter nodded and opened the training room door, but Natasha called out to him before he could leave. 

“Good work today kid. I’m proud of you.” 

Peter smiled his true smile for the first time since he had gotten home, and he said. “Thanks Aunt Nat.” He knew as he walked out of the door she was proud of him, and even though he had a and day, and he still had so much to learn about being a hero he knew that he would always have his Aunt Nat beside him. 

After Peter left Natasha made her way up to her and Clint’s room and found him packing. 

“Going somewhere?” She asked getting out a change of clothes and her go-bag. 

“Yeah. I called Nick. I heard that Germany’s beautiful this time of year and no one has been in the safehouse we have there for almost two years. I’m going to go check on it a few days after you leave.” He suggested with a smirk. 

“Oh. That’s funny. I’m going to be in Germany for my mission.” She teased him. 

“Oh. What a coincidence. I totally didn’t plan that with Fury while you were training with Peter.” He obviously lied and it made Natasha smile. He kissed her forehead and wrapped her in a hug. 

“How is he?” He asked. 

“Better now.” She sighed. 

“Good. You know he’s going to miss you while you’re gone.” Clint said releasing her and going back to his packing. 

“Yeah. I’m going to miss him too.” She said with a small smile. 

 

Three days later Natasha was in Germany working her mission, it was boring, and something that could have been done by a lower level agent, but she knew she needed to be out of the country until things cooled off a little back at home. She was walking to the embassy when Clint called her, by doing the math she saw that it was well past midnight in the states.

“Hey baby. How’s it going?” She cooed into the phone assuming Clint had missed her and wanted to talk, when she heard Clint breathing heavy she knew something was wrong. 

“We just found Peter. He didn’t come in from patrol on time. He was shot three times. He’s in surgery right now.” Clint told her quietly, he thought ripping off the bandaid was better than dragging it out.

“I’ll be home in 12 hours. I want updates on his condition every half hour.” She ordered without letting any emotion slip through her voice. She hung up the phone and hailed a cab to take her back to the airport where S.H.I.E.L.D was keeping their jets. She hopped in one without waiting for clearance from Fury and started to take off. 

Natasha landed at the tower earlier than expected and when she got there Peter was out of surgery, but still unconscious. Clint stood by her the whole time. “How is he?” 

“He’s doing better, his healing is working properly. Stark’s watching his vitals like a hawk and hasn’t left his side. By all accounts he’s going to be waking up when the anesthesia wears off.” Clint whispered taking Natasha’s hand. 

“What about a suspect?” 

“Cap and Sam are out searching, all signs point to the gang war that’s been going on and Peter got caught in the crossfire. He’s been trying to break up the war for a while now.” 

Natasha stood in silence, she didn’t know what to say or what to think, she felt like she did when Clint was lying in a hospital bed after getting hurt on a mission. She opened the door to Peter’s room and Clint followed her in. Peter started stirring and Natasha put her hand on his forehead. He opened his eyes and looked at her through the sleepy haze. 

“Aunt Nat? I thought you were in Germany.” He slurred from the pain meds, Clint suppressed a giggle at how Peter sounded. 

“I was Pete, but I’m here now.” She whispered. 

“Are you staying? Because I want to show you my scars, now I have scars like you. Now I’m just like you.” He said with a giggle. “Well not just like you. I don’t have red hair.” 

Tony was smiling in the background, he was relieved that Peter was ok and was making jokes, even if they were induced by the pain meds. 

“No Pete. You’re better than I’ll ever be.” She whispered around the lump in her throat as she pushed Peter’s hair out of his face.

“I love you Aunt Nat.” He whispered. 

“I love you too Peter.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Uncle Clint? Uncle Clint? Are you home?” Peter called running through the tower with a smile on his face. 

As he was running he wasn't watching where he was and ran directly into Sam who was walking through the tower. 

“Hey there spidey. How was school?” Sam asked with a chuckle. 

“I mean. It was ok. Well actually it was pretty good. Well it will be once I talk to Uncle Clint. We have this paper at school and…” 

“Kid. Clint and Nat aren't here, well they are here, but Nat's having a bad day. Clint's with her, helping her. It's bad, it's really bad.” 

“What happened? Is it the council. Are they going to take her away?” Peter rushed setting his backpack down on the couch. 

“No. No Pete. At least not that I’m aware of. Tony told us earlier not to talk to them, that Natasha was having a bad day. That she always gets bad this time of year.” Sam stuttered, not knowing how much Peter knew about Natasha’s past and not wanting to reveal anything without her permission. 

Peter sighed and sat down, he hadn’t liked this time of year either, not since his mom had died and it had only gotten worse since his aunt had moved away. He looked at his phone and noticed that Sunday was Mothers Day. 

“Pete she’ll be alright, she’s just going through a tough spot right now. You know Natasha. Everything is going to be ok.” Sam said with a smile and put his hand on Peter’s shoulder, he knew that this time of year couldn’t be easy on the kid either and hoped that Natasha would be there for him soon. 

Peter stood and grabbed his bag again, throwing it over his shoulder. As he walked away from Sam he muttered. “I’ll be down in the lab if anyone needs me.” 

As he was walking away Sam called out to him. “Hey kid. If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.” 

Peter turned around and gave Sam a smile. “Thanks Sam. I’ll keep it in mind.” 

Sam smiled and thought about Peter, about how he could change every single one of the Avengers moods. About how his smile could light up the room, he liked Peter, he was a good kid who had already been through too much in his life. He remembered how scared he had seen Natasha after he had been shot and decided to head down to her and Clint’s room to see if there was anything he could do. 

When Sam went to knock on the door he got a text from Clint, who was inside, saying to give him a minute because Natasha was asleep and he didn’t want his knocking to wake her. After a couple of minutes Clint stepped into the hallway to meet him.

Sam looked Clint up and down and saw the bags under his eyes, his hair that looked like it had been through a tornado, and the old faded band shirt and gym shorts that Clint was wearing and became mildly concerned. 

“How’s Nat?” He asked. 

“Not good. This is the first time I’ve gotten her to sleep all week. She keeps having nightmares and reliving her past when she’s awake.” 

“Her last mission and Peter getting hurt really did a number on her, plus with Mother's day on Sunday this has been a recipe for disaster.” He sighed looking back at the door. 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s with Mother’s day and her?” He asked softly putting his hand on Clint’s shoulder to comfort him in his exhausted state. 

“Natasha never knew her mom, never really had a mother figure before she came to S.H.I.E.L.D that didn’t want to use and exploit her, and hadn’t tried to kill her several times. When she came to S.H.I.E.L.D, when she came home, she had Peggy Carter. Peggy really did a lot for Natasha when she first came in. When Peggy died last year it was really hard on Natasha, she had become like a mom to her. What made it worse was that a week before she died Natasha went and visited her. By then her memory had gotten so bad that she couldn’t even remember Natasha’s name or why she knew her.” 

“Oh my god man. I’m sorry for even asking.” Sam sighed. 

“That’s not even the worst part Sam. Natasha always wanted to have her own kids, she always thought that because she had caused so much pain in the world that maybe, just maybe bringing a kid into to it and doing right by them would help to cancel some of the things that she’s done, even though she’s already done so much to make the world a better place that it doesn’t matter. She still wanted to have kids, I guess for a sense of normalcy after everything we’ve been through. I want kids, but I won’t tell Tasha that because while she was in the Red Room they sterilized her, so no matter what she did, she couldn’t ever have kids.” Clint vented, he needed to get some of this off of his chest, he had to tell someone who understood what it’s like, living through wars constantly, fighting against yourself, and Sam was the only one who could really understand. Steve knew what it was like too, but it wasn’t the same, and Natasha didn’t want Steve knowing. 

After a few minutes of Sam and Clint standing there Sam spoke up. “The kid got home from school a while ago. He said something about a paper, he wanted to talk to you about it. You should take a break and go talk to him. I’ll stay with Nat. If she wakes up and I can’t handle her I’ll find you.” 

“No. It’s alright man. This is my job. I can’t leave her, not today, not when she’s like this.” Clint whispered shaking his head. 

“Clint. Natasha isn’t the only one having a hard time this week. The kid’s in the lab, go talk to him. I can handle this, I used to do this for a living. I got this, go.” Sam nudged him. 

Clint smiled softly. “Natasha might be scared if she wakes up, try your best not to hold her back, she’ll kick your ass.” 

“Trust me, I know.” Sam chuckled. 

 

“Dammit. Ow.” Peter said dropping his suit and the instrument he was probing the control panel with. 

“Parker if you keep probing that you’ll set it on fire and you’ll have to start all over again.” Tony said from under a pickup truck that he was fixing up for Steve. 

“I know, I was trying to insert this new chip Ned made for me, it adds 17 different web shooting combos, by combining the ones you already programmed in for me.” He sighed setting turning around and putting his head in his hands. 

“The Ned kid you always talk about, what college is he going to?” Tony asked rolling out from under the car. 

“He’s already got an early acceptance to MIT. He’s one of the smartest people I know.” Peter smiled. 

“Why don’t you bring him over sometime, I’d love to show him some of my tech, maybe even offer him a job in R&D. I’m impressed that he was able to hack into my suit, with just a computer.” Tony laughed. 

“I think if I brought him over, he’d spend too much time fawning over you to actually get anything done.” He mumbled. 

“Hey Pete you ok?” Tony asked putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder. 

“Is Aunt Nat ok?” 

“Kid. Natasha is just having a rough time right now. Clint’s taking care of her, and I’m keeping an eye on her. She’ll be alright.” Tony soothed with a sad smile on his face. 

“Is it because of Mother’s Day?” 

“That’s part of it kid, but…” Tony was cut off by Clint 

“Hey Stark, can you go check on Natasha. I’ve got to talk to Pete”

“Yeah, yeah. Kid we can finish this later.” Tony said and walked past Clint. 

“Hey Pete.” 

“Hey Uncle Clint. Is Aunt Nat ok?” 

“Peter. Natasha’s having an episode right now, her PTSD is really bad, She…” 

“Is right here.” Natasha whispered walking in in her robe. 

“Tasha you should be in bed, asleep.”

“I’m fine Clint.” She snapped looking at the shocked look on Peter’s face. 

Natasha’s hair was a mess, she was wearing a grey robe, and had dark circles under her bloodshot eyes. Peter had never seen her like this, she didn’t look like herself. To Peter, this was one of the hardest things he’s ever scene, Natasha was always put together, always able to put herself together together enough so she at least looked composed. Yet for some reason she had still come down to see him, she was still trying to take care of hims, when she could barely even take care of herself. To him, that meant everything, that meant the world, that she cared about him enough to show him that she was weak, but she was still ok, and that she was there for him. 

Peter ran up to Natasha and gave her a hug, he felt her muscles tighten and her almost run away from him, but she didn’t she stayed with him, she let him hug her and she hugged him back as well, she finally felt completely comfortable with Peter, something she expected to take longer to do, but there was just something about him, that made her so happy. 

“Hey Pete.” 

“Hey Aunt Nat.”

“Sam told me there was something you wanted to talk to me about, a paper for school.” Natasha whispered 

Peter let go of Natasha and went over to his desk and pulled a paper off of it. “I have to write a paper for school about the strongest woman I know. They can’t be related to me by blood so I can’t do Aunt May. I wanted to ask you if I could do it on you.” 

Natasha looked at Peter and then looked at Clint, she was asking him, if this was his idea, but Clint only shook his head. 

“Ok Pete. Let’s get to work.” 

“Tash maybe you want to go and get some rest first. You guys could start in a couple of hours.” Clint suggested nodding at Peter to agree. 

“Yeah. We could start later, I have until Monday to do it, it isn’t a big deal. You should get some rest Aunt Nat.” 

“That paper right there says the best essay gets a prize and the person it’s written on gets to come into your class for a presentation. We’re going to win.” Natasha said with a smirk, finally sounding somewhat like her usual self. 

“Well Aunt Nat I have to write it, and the rules say we can’t show it to the person we are writing it on. You should get some sleep, me and Uncle Clint, or Mr. Stark can work on it while you rest.” Peter lied, trying to get Natasha to get some actual sleep. 

Natasha knew he was lying, but the smile on his face was undeniable, she could never say no to him and both Peter and Clint knew it. Natasha was beat, so she grabbed Clint’s hand and they made their way back to their room. 

Natasha laid down in bed with Clint laying beside her, she felt calmer than she had in several days, it was always something that spending time with Peter did for her. His smile, and the way he acted grounded Natasha, it made her realize that there was something more than just the fighting and the missions, with him and Clint, she felt at home, and she felt safe. 

“Whatcha thinking about?” Clint whispered wrapping her in a hug. 

“Peter, us, our family.” 

“What about?” 

“About how they’re our family, and without them, and without you. I’d be lost.” 

“I’d always come find you Natasha.”

“I love you Clint.”

“I love you too Tasha.” 

 

“Uncle Clint! Uncle Clint!” Peter yelled as he raced through the shooting range. 

“Hey kiddo what’s up.” Clint chuckled as he set down his bow. 

“Uncle Clint. I won. My essay about Aunt Nat won!” 

“Nice job kiddo! I’m proud of you!” Clint said giving Peter a high five. 

“Thanks Uncle Clint! Do you know when Aunt Nat is going to be back? She has to come in on Friday to tell the class about herself, if she can’t make it it’s no big deal. I can tell the teacher that she doesn’t have time because she has a world to save.” 

“I don’t know when she’s going to be back, but we have three days, so I’ll see if I can get a message to her in time, and if not I can go to your class, or we could have Tony do it.” Clint reasoned once he saw Peter’s face fall a fraction. 

“No. No. Uncle Clint. It’s ok. I’ll tell the teacher she can’t come in. Don’t make Aunt Nat stress, it’s just my english class. She has more important things to do.” Peter said with a smile and left to go put his suit on and go out for patrol. 

This was his first week back on patrol in over a month and a half. Natasha and Tony had put him on restriction since the last time he was out he was shot. Clint was the one who negotiated to let Peter back out on patrol earlier than both Tony and Natasha wanted. 

Clint walked out of the shooting range and started working on getting word to Natasha about Peter’s class. He knew that she would figure out a way to be there, no matter what she had to do. Natasha loved that boy with all her heart and when it was just her and Clint, they called him ‘Baby Spider’ in Russian. Peter had come to mean more to both of them than either had ever expected. 

 

“Parker, will your guest be joining us in class today.” Peter’s snotty english teacher egged on, he still didn’t believe that Peter knew the Black Widow and was now just testing him to see if he could strike a nerve. 

“No Mr. Scotts, Ms. Romanoff has a world to save, she doesn’t have time to come talk to an english class full of high schoolers.” 

“I thought you called her your “Aunt Nat”” The teacher exaggerated with air quotes. 

“Yes sir, that is because that is what I call her. She is my Aunt Nat, but she is currently on the other side of the world, making sure that it is safe for us to come to school.” 

“Just give up the act Parker. You don’t know the Black Widow and stop acting like you do, it’s pathetic and ridiculous. Admit you lied in your paper so I can give you a detention and we can be over with this waste of time.” 

“No Mr. Scotts. Peter actually knows Natasha, I went over to her house one time when Peter was staying there and she made us food and let us play video games. He’s telling the truth.” Ned shouted from across the classroom. 

“Leeds one more word out of you and you’ll be in detention with Parker.” The teacher fired back as he wrote out the slip for Peter. 

Peter stood at the teacher’s desk waiting to be handed his detention slip, even though he knew he didn’t deserve it, and that he wasn’t lying. Peter knew he was never going to change his mind so he didn’t care, the people who mattered to him knew that he knew Natasha. 

Peter heard heels tapping against the tile outside the classroom and figured one of the assistant principals was here to take him away for “lying” in his essay. He didn’t even look up when the door opened until he heard her voice. 

“I’m sorry. Is this Mr. Scotts room? I’m Natasha Romanoff and I’m here to give a presentation.” Natasha simpered and Peter turned around with his eyes as big as saucers, he wasn’t expecting Natasha to be here, he still thought she was on the other side of the world. 

“Aunt Nat what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be on the other side of the world?” He asked going up to her and giving her a hug. Everyone in the classroom was staring at her in her black blazer and pencil skirt, her knee high boots, and pulled back hair completed the look by accentuating the blue long sleeve shirt she was wearing. 

“Oh my god Ms. Romanoff. It’s an honor to meet someone like you, Peter here wrote a marvelous essay about you and I can’t believe I’m meeting you in person.” The teacher said jumping out of his chair when his shock wore off. 

“Well I came here to support my favorite nephew. You can rip up that detention slip now.” Natasha ordered and tucked a piece of Peter’s hair that he didn’t gel behind his ear. 

“Well yes of course ma’am. I was just messing around with Peter like aways, huh Peter.” 

“Since when do you mess around?” Ned shouted at the teacher from his corner. 

“I said not another word out of you Leeds!” The teacher growled.

“Oh. Hi Ned honey! I didn’t see you there. Did your parents enjoy the food I sent home with you the last time you came over?” Natasha asked signalling to the teacher that both of them were off limits while he was in her presence unless he wanted to taste his own toes. 

“Yeah They thought it was really good.” Ned stuttered while blushing, he didn’t expect Natasha to acknowledge his presence. 

Natasha smiled at Ned and turned back to the teacher. “Now if the formalities are out of the way I’d like to get started on this presentation, before I get called back into work.” 

Natasha sat on a stool in the middle of the classroom while the kids asked her questions. Peter sat in his chair in class beaming the entire time, his aunt Nat had showed up and saved him from another embarrassment at school, and another detention. She cared enough about him to finish her mission early and somehow make it to his classroom to give a presentation to a classroom full of obnoxious teenagers all because she told him she would. 

After a while, Natasha’s phone started buzzing and she tried to ignore it continuing to let the kids ask her questions about S.H.I.E.L.D and the Avengers, and other things. After five minutes of her phone buzzing Peter looked up behind him and saw Clint tapping on the window to get Natasha’s attention. 

Natasha looked over and sighed. “Well ladies and gentlemen, looks like duty calls. Thank you for allowing me to come into your class today.” Natasha said standing up and getting a round of applause from her person in the classroom. 

Natasha looked at Peter with an apology in her eyes, but Peter just beamed back at her, he was as happy as could be, no matter how short Natasha’s time in his classroom was. 

Natasha walked past the teachers desk and he said, “It’s too bad you have to leave, I was going to ask you out for coffee after.” 

Natasha only smirked and looked at Clint who was still watching from the window. “Sorry, but I’m already taken.” She said loud enough for the kids who were recording to get it on video. 

Natasha sauntered out of the classroom as everyone ran to the window to watch, as her and Clint walked to the car they were holding hands and she turned around and winked at Peter before she got into the car and her and Clint sped off.


	4. Peter there for Natasha: 1

“Hey Peter.” One of the girls giggled at him from across the hall. Since Natasha had shown up at school twice now he had become a bit of a school celebrity. 

Peter didn't particularly like people knowing his name, it made it harder for him to disappear from school when the city needed saving, but there were some benefits, him and Ned weren't picked on as much and the academic decathlon team had more of a following which encouraged the whole team so Peter was glad he could contribute something even when he couldn't always be at practice. 

Peter opened up his locker and Ned came up to him like always. 

“Hey Peter. So I was on the computer last night because I was bored and I got into your suit again, and you really weren't being very efficient last night. Your swings were sloppy and your web shooting was off target with the target lock on. What's going on?” Ned blabbed quietly. 

“Yeah I noticed. I. I don't really know. My spider sense has been off the charts lately, I keep feeling like something really bad is going to happen.” Peter whispered as he pulled his books out of his locker. 

“Peter that isn't spider sense. That's called anxiety.” 

“No, Ned you don't understand it's never been like this before. Even before I had powers and before I was on the antianxiety meds I used to be on. This is different.” Peter sighed closing his locker and looking down to see his shoe was untied and retying it. 

“Well I mean, we do have nationals for decathlon in two months, plus I mean we have the dance that is eventually going to be here. Maybe you're just worried about that?” Ned suggested with a shrug. 

“I don't know, maybe, it just doesn't feel right, something feels wrong.” Peter tried to explain, but just shook his head. 

“Did you call May this morning? Maybe that's it. Or maybe you forgot to do something. What about the present you got for Natasha, did you forget to pick it up?” 

“No I called May, and I picked up Natasha's present this morning. The frame I made for it is drying in the lab, when I get home, I mean when I get to the tower all I need to do is put it in the frame.” 

“Oh really! Can I see it? Please?” Ned asked nearly jumping up and down as Peter unzipped his backpack. 

“Wow. Dude this is amazing, how did you draw this so life like? It looks like an actual picture.” Ned said looking at the picture Peter had drew of Clint and Natasha to hang in their house in New York, they had just bought a house close to Peter's school so that way he could come over whenever he needed a break from the tower. 

He hoped they would put it up along with the framed copy of Peter's essay that Clint had gotten for Natasha, but he didn't expect them to, he just wanted them to like his drawing.

“It took me so long, and Aunt Nat almost caught me twice. I told her I was watching spiderman videos on my computer, she knew I was lying.” 

“You should have told her you were watching porn, that makes everyone get away from my computer, I don't even watch porn.” Ned said with a shrug and handed the drawing back to Peter. 

“Natasha knows I don't watch porn, and I think if I did and she found out she would beat me in our next training session.” 

“Yeah probably. Hey did you study for the math quiz today? Maybe that's what you're worried about.” Ned said immediately bouncing to another topic, Ned was like that, you could hardly keep him focused on one thing for longer than a few minutes, unless he was hacking, then he could be lazer focused. 

“Come on, Ms. T's math test? Those things are a piece of cake, I don't even need to study for those.” Peter chuckled for the first time that morning, Ned knew whatever it was that was bothering him it must have been really bad, Peter was usually one of the bubbliest people he knew. 

The bell rang and everyone started scrambling to their classes, Ned had computer science class first period whereas Peter had chemistry so they did their secret handshake and headed their separate ways down the hall. 

Peter sat through the first three periods without being able to focus, all of the hairs on the back of his neck kept standing up and he couldn't figure out why. Ned met up with him during third and had to call his name four times to get his attention. Ned knew something was wrong with Peter, and Peter just kept feeling like everything was going to go wrong. 

Peter and Ned walked to fourth period in silence, something they never did, but Ned thought Peter needed time to think, so he let him. As they walked into class Peter's phone started buzzing rapidly and he pulled it out of his pocket, his phone was on silent at school except for any of the Avengers numbers. He looked down and saw Sam's name flash across the screen. 

Peter stepped back into the hall and Ned nodded seeing Sam's name on the screen as well. Ned went to distract their teacher as Peter answered the phone. 

“Sam, what's going on? You never call.” 

“Peter I'm going to tell you something, but I am going to need you to stay at school ok?” 

“What's going on?” Peter asked as he felt his heart rate rise and his senses start to go on high alert. His shoes stuck to the floor as he ran to his locker to grab his extra canisters of web fluid. 

“Peter, take a breath bud, dammit I know you're already leaving school. No point now.”

“Sam what is going on?” Peter begged as he slid the locker up and grabbed the extra backpack from under it. 

“Natasha and Clint just got back from their mission. Natasha. Natasha's in surgery. They don't know if she's going to make it.” 

Peter felt the phone drop to the floor and Sam asking him if he was ok through it, but he couldn't focus on anything. There were tears rushing to his eyes and he couldn't control anything, his body was sticking to his clothes, his backpack was stuck to him, every part of his powers were going haywire, his eyes couldn't focus and his pupils were dots. 

Sam hung up the phone and called him again, hoping to jumpstart him into doing something and it worked. Peter picked up the phone and pressed it to his face and let it stick there as he got his web shooters out of his backpack and slapped them on. 

“Peter say something bud, I hear you doing things. Talk to me.” 

“Where is Natasha?” He somehow choked out as he wiped the tears from his face and walked out of the school. 

“Right now she's in surgery at S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters in New York, she went in an hour ago. I'm here at the hospital with Clint and everybody else. They didn't want to tell you because you need to be at school, but you need to know.” 

“How bad is it?” Peter asked pulling on his mask and shooting a web onto the nearest light pole to launch off of. 

“Peter. Fury is here, and Maria is on her way. Are you sure you can handle this?” Sam asked only halfway answering Peter's question. 

“I'm thirty minutes away. I promise. I'm on the way, just tell her I'm coming, she has to hold on, Sam I'm almost there.” He yelled as he traipsed between buildings he was trying to keep his emotions in check and to use his head like Natasha taught him, but he couldn't, there was too many things going through his head to worry about controlling his emotions. 

Sam tried to respond but the call either dropped or Peter hung up the phone, he wasn't entirely sure what was going on but he put his phone in his pocket and turned back into the waiting room filled with Avengers. He sat back down in his seat and waited next to Rhodey and Thor who had decided to stay for the weekend. Bruce was pacing and trying to get his hands on anything about Natasha's surgery, and Steve was in an office somewhere trying to find a lead on who did this to Natasha. None of them had any idea what had happened, one minute is was a regular Wednesday, and the next Tony called and said Natasha was in surgery. 

Sam looked at the clock and saw that it had been two hours now, Pepper came in and sat down quickly, her flight from D.C. had just gotten in. The door to the surgery observation room opened and Tony stepped out of it, he put his back against the door and took a deep breath. Sam thought he saw tears coming down Tony's face, after only a second Tony turned and made his way back into the room. They all knew who was watching the surgery, and none of them were willing to ask to go in, they knew that Natasha's family needed this time, if anyone was going to be with her in her last moments it deserved to be them. 

“Sam. Did you tell Peter?” Pepper asked quietly. 

“Don't tell me you told the kid.” Rhodey sighed looking at the look on Sam's face. 

“He deserves to know. He should be…” Sam was cut off by his phone ringing and a picture of Peter popped up on his phone. 

“He's here isn't he?” Rhodey said looking at the picture on Sam's screen. 

“I'm going to go get him and calm him down. He needs to be here, he's just as much as a part of this family as we all are.” Sam said picking up the phone and walking away. 

Everyone nodded in agreement. They knew Peter needed to be here, but none of them wanted him to be here if Natasha didn't make it out of surgery. 

 

“Sam please let them let me in. They won't let me in.” Peter begged as he saw Sam approaching and tried to get out his school ID to show the nurse, but his hands were sticking to everything. 

“He's with me. He's here for Romanoff.” Sam said quietly to the nurse who was standing at her station. 

She nodded and gave Peter a children's visitor sticker. Sam walked down the hallway and pulled Peter into an empty bathroom, causing his hand to get stuck to Peter's jacket. 

“Ok kid you can release me now.” Sam tired to lighten the mood when he realized that he was stuck to Peter. 

“I. I. Uh. Um hold on.” Peter said closing his eyes trying to let Sam let go of his jacket. 

Sam's hand released and he looked at it. “Is that supposed to happen?” 

“It started happening when I found out about Natasha. I keep sticking to everything and I don't know what to do.” Peter whispered and put his ID back in his backpack, finally getting it to stop sticking to his hand. 

“Hey kid look at me. I need you to take a deep breath, and I need you to focus.” Sam said getting Peter to look at him. 

“You are one of the strongest kids I know. You are incredibly smart and you've been through way more than anyone your age should ever have to go through. But this is… God I don't even know what to say you Peter.” 

“Can I see her?” He whispered. 

Sam took a deep breath and nodded. He opened the door for Peter not wanting him to get stuck to anything else. Sam could see Peter's nervousness, his fidgeting, he saw that the kid in front of him was terrified and he had no idea what to do to help him. He was used to working with soldiers, not kids who had lost almost everything and was close to losing another mother figure in his life. 

Sam walked past the other Avengers and Pepper with Peter slightly behind him, Steve had come down and was now sitting in Sam's spot. He pointed to the door and Peter rushed towards it. 

“Kid what are you doing here?” Tony asked when he saw Peter walk towards the glass and touch it. 

“Is she going to make it?” He whispered and Clint noticed the quiver in his voice. 

“I don't know.” Clint said shaking his head. 

Peter couldn't draw his eyes away from Natasha, she had tubes and machines surrounding her, she wasn't breathing on her own, and they had cut her open to retrieve the bullets that were lost in her body. 

“He should not be here. He doesn't need to see this.” Fury argued with a caring in his voice that very few had heard before. 

“Pete, please?” Tony asked coming up to him, but Peter was oblivious to everything, he couldn't stop looking at Natasha as he tried to hold his tears back, but was failing. 

“What happened?” 

“Firefight broke out. Bullets were everywhere, we were outmatched outgunned and…” 

“Natasha was covering you when she got shot.” Peter finished for Clint. 

“How'd you know.” Maria asked quietly coming up to the glass as alarms started to go off. 

“BP is dropping.” 

“Heart rate is going too!” They yelled on the other side of the glass. 

“Aunt Nat don't do this to me. Don't do this to me Aunt Nat.” 

“She's flatlining! Someone get me a defibrillator!” 

“Come on Tasha. Don't do this.” Clint whispered gripping the handrail until his knuckles turned white. 

“Aunt Nat don't do this. Don't leave me. Aunt Nat please.” 

“She still doesn't have a pulse!” 

“Get me epinephrine!” 

“Someone get him out of here!” Fury shouted as chaos took over the operating room, all Fury thought was that no kid should have to see what he's seeing. 

“Shock her again!” 

“Aunt Nat please. Please don't.” 

“Stark!” Maria shouted as she heard Peter get louder and louder as the tears started to fall from Clint's face. 

“Peter now. Let's go.” Tony ordered grabbing his arm. He needed to get Peter out of there before they stopped trying to save Natasha. 

“No. No. Aunt Nat please!” 

“Tony!” 

Tony grabbed Peter by the waist and picked him up, he was lighter than anyone else his size, it had something to do with the spider bite so he picked him up with ease. 

“Mr. Stark please! Don't! Aunt Nat! Aunt Nat please!” Peter begged from Tony's shoulder. Tony refused to give in to Peter's pleas and walked him out of the room on his shoulder. 

“Cap!” Tony called as soon as they were out of the room and he came rushing over, grabbing Peter off of Tony. 

“I got him. Go. I got him.” Steve said taking Peter in his arms. 

“Let me go! Let me go! I have to see her! I have to see Natasha! Please! Let me see her!” 

“Shhhh. Peter you're ok. It's ok.” Steve whispered into his ear setting him down, but still keeping him wrapped in his arms. 

“She's dying! Please! I need to tell her something! I need to! I need to!” He yelled into Steve's chest and tried to break out of his grasp but he couldn't focus his brain enough to control his strength. 

“It's going to be ok. Pete it's going to be ok. Let's sit down, ok? Let's sit down.” He said guiding him over to one of the chairs by Pepper. 

None of the Avengers waiting outside felt like they could breathe, tears started to fall from Pepper's eyes as she saw more and more equipment and doctors going into Natasha's operating room. Everyone else was trying to keep it together if not for their own sakes, for Peter. 

“Hey kiddo. It's going to be ok. Natasha's going to make it through this. She's going to be ok.” Pepper whispered into his ear as his arms wrapped around her, trying to find some comfort in the chaos that was the world he was in. 

Peter sobbed into Pepper as the rest of them looked on, they had no idea what to do, they didn't know what he saw, they had no idea what was going on with Natasha, so they sat and waited. 

 

“Pete. Hey kid. Kid wake up.” Tony said shaking the sleeping Peter who was curled in a chair with is head on Peppers lap. 

“Peter come on. Natasha's out of surgery.” Pepper said brushing the hair of of Peter's face and taking his hood off. 

Peter sat up groggily and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “What?” He asked. 

“Natasha's out of surgery. She made it.” Tony said with a small smile. 

A smile returned to Peter's face. “What? How? I thought Natasha. Oh my God.” 

“Pete. She isn't out of the clear. She's still asleep. She. She isn't breathing on her own, and Pete, if she wakes up, she. She won't be able to walk. She's paralyzed.” Tony sighed. 

“What?” Pepper asked as everyone came closer to Tony. 

“A bullet punctured her lung. And another one hit her spine. It got her spinal cord, they don't think she's going to walk again, but her spinal cord isn't severed so there's a chance.” 

“Can we see her?” Peter asked quietly. 

“Clint actually asked for you. He thinks that you can be what she needs to wake up. He already tried his usual tricks. He thinks you can do it.” 

“Me?” 

“The anesthesia wore off hours ago. They say if shes going to wake up she needs to do it soon.” Tony announced and saw the hurt looks from everyone other than Peter who was still confused about why Clint would want him. 

“Clint and Fury wanted me to wait. We didn't know if Natasha was going to have a chance at waking up, we didn't want to give you guys false hope.” He explained after he saw everyone's reactions. 

“How soon can we get her back to the tower? We can call in Cho, try and get some stem cells into her spine, we can also…” Bruce started but was cut off by Tony who was getting more irritated with everything Bruce said. 

“Bruce stop.” 

“But, if we get her back to the tower we have more equipment and funding.” 

“Bruce! Shut up!” Tony screamed startling everyone, there was more to the story than he was telling everyone, and they all hoped that it was for Peter's sake. 

“Come on Pete. I'll take you to her. You guys stay here. I'll be right back.” Tony said patting Peter on the back and walking away. 

“That's not good is it?” Steve asked once they were out of earshot. 

“No. No it isnt.” Rhodey and Pepper answered in unison. 

 

Peter walked into the room silently. Maria was sitting in one corner looking at something on a computer, Fury was talking to a guard outside, and Clint was sitting next to Natasha's bed with his hand wrapped around hers. 

Clint had tear stains on his face and was playing with Natasha's engagement necklace that he was now wearing with his other hand. Peter was shocked by the sight of Natasha who was hooked up to almost every single tube and machine that Peter could think of, the worst of the damage on her midsection was being covered by bandages and a hospital gown. Peter felt his clothes stick to him again as Maria looked up at him, Peter couldn't find anything to say so Maria spoke up. 

“Hey Clint. I'm going to go get some coffee, do you want some?” She asked excusing herself. 

“Yeah, anything is fine.” Clint responded noticing Peter there for the first time when he looked at Maria. 

“Hey kid.” He whispered. 

“Hi Uncle Clint.” 

“Come here kid.” Clint stood up and opened his arms to Peter. 

Peter gladly accepted the hug and noticed the tears on his face. 

“Is the hug more for me or you, Uncle Clint?” Peter asked wanting to lighten the mood at least a touch. 

“I think we both need it kid. I think we both need it.” 

“Do you think Aunt Nat is going to die?” Peter asked letting go of Clint. 

“I don’t know kid. I don’t know. I can’t live without her. I don’t know what I’m going to do if she does.” 

“How did you know that you loved her?” 

“I don’t really know kid. I just woke up one day and realized that I couldn’t live life without her. I realized that everyday that I wasn’t with her was the same, it was boring. I realized that everything that I did for the world meant nothing if I didn’t have Natasha to share it with.” Clint whispered wiping away the new tears that had started to fall and sitting down next to her again. 

“Uncle Clint. What am I supposed to do. I don’t know how to wake her up. I don’t know what to do. I’m just Peter, I’m just Peter Parker, and Aunt Nat means so much to me, but I don’t know what to do.” 

“Hey. Hey. Peter. Peter it’s ok. It’s ok. Natasha will wake up when it’s her time. And if she doesn’t then it’ll be her time. Peter. You don’t need to wake her up, I just thought that maybe her hearing the sound of your voice would help her to remember that she isn’t just fighting for herself anymore, that she has a family, that she has a kid who loves her more than she could ever imagine. Peter, Natasha loves you, and she wanted me to make sure you knew that if she ever died.” Clint choked out trying and failing to hold back tears as he pushed the stray curls out of Natasha’s face to avoid looking at Peter. 

“I never told her.” Peter whispered. 

“She knows Peter, she knows.”

 

Peter walked to his locker and put his books into it. As he turned around Flash was waiting for him. 

“Where you been the past three days Parker? Too afraid to show your face after the security camera video leaked of you stepping in glue and getting stuck to everything?” Flash egged on. 

Peter kept walking and ignored him, knowing that he wanted a rise out of Peter and refusing to give into his wishes. 

“Or were you crying in bed after getting into a fight with your fatass best friend?” 

Peter whipped around at the mention of Ned and threw Flash against the lockers, pinning him with his hand behind his back, Peter was an inch away from dislocating Flash’s shoulder and wrist in one foul swoop. 

“I swear to god if you ever talk shit to me again flash I’ll do more than just dislocate your arm. Do you under-fucking-stand me Flash?” Peter nearly yelled and caused people to stop and watch in the hallways, some got out their phones and waited for a fight to break out. 

“Let me go Parker. You don’t have the balls.” Flash tempted while wincing in pain and trying to squirm away.

“You really want to test that?” Peter asked moving Flash’s hand higher on his back and causing him more pain. 

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Parker I give in! I’m sorry! Let me go please!” Flash begged out of pain. 

Peter dropped Flash where he was and let the crowd absorb him with their cameras and embarrass him as he walked over to Ned who was waiting for him at the end of the hall. 

“So Natasha’s still in a coma?” He asked quietly when Peter was beside him. 

“Yeah, but she’s still breathing on her own, and they moved her to the tower, so I can spend more time with her. I’m not going to make it to practice tonight. I have to be with Natasha.” 

“I’ll let M.J and Mr. Smith know. As long as you’re ready to go for Nationals they won’t care, you’re the star of the team.” Ned said stopping by his locker and grabbing his books. 

“I don’t know if I can go to Nationals with Natasha like this. If she’s still.. I don’t know Ned.” Peter stuttered thinking of Natasha in the med bay and remembering that if she wakes up she would be paralyzed. 

“Hey man. It’s ok. Don’t worry about it. We’ll be ok. You’ve got way too much on your plate right now.” Ned said putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder. 

“Thanks Ned.” 

“Anytime Peter. 

 

“Mr. Parker. You are wanted in the med bay as soon as possible.” Jarvis announced as Peter walked into the elevator. 

“Take me there now J. Don’t waste anytime.” Peter responded feeling is heart sink into his stomach and his hands get sticky. 

“Of course sir.” he said as the elevator started to rise and Peter started pacing. 

The doors opened and Peter raced through the halls as fast as possible to find the room Natasha was in. He opened the door and dropped his backpack at the sight. 

“Bout damn time you got home from school.” Natasha joked with a smile, her hair was braided perfectly and she had put on one of Clint’s old t-shirts, she had gotten some color in her face and to Peter she looked better than ever. 

“Would have been here sooner if you called.” Peter said with a smile, but was stuck to his spot by the door, he didn’t want to touch her and have all of it reveal itself to be a dream. 

“You just gonna stand there like a stranger or are you going to come give me a hug?” Natasha asked as Clint started chuckling. 

Peter walked over slowly making sure that everything seemed realistic and Clint even nodded at him to confirm everything was indeed happening and it wasn’t a dream. Peter leaned over and Natasha wrapped her arms around him, ruffling his hair like she always did. It wasn’t a dream like Peter feared. He had his Aunt Nat back, and he couldn’t have been happier. 

“Don’t cry Peter. I’m ok. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere anymore. I’m not going to leave you.” Natasha whispered into his ear as she felt his tears on her shoulder. 

“I missed you Aunt Nat. Why didn’t you call me? I would have come. I would have come.” 

“I know Peter. I know. I needed time. I needed time Peter. I can’t walk. I can’t feel my legs. I didn’t do well when I found out. I’m not able to do anything I used to anymore Peter. I can’t walk. I needed time, and I didn’t want you to see me like that.” Natasha whispered pulling him away so he could see the pain in her eyes. 

“Mr. Stark said there’s a chance that you can walk again. He said we’re gonna build you a suit and it’s going to be just like legs. Aunt Nat we are going to help you walk again. Me and Dr. Banner have already looked into stem cell treatments. Aunt Nat you’re going to walk again! You’re going to walk down the aisle at your wedding! Aunt Nat I’m going to make sure you walk again!” Peter rambled getting louder with each sentence. 

“Peter maybe you should give Natasha some space.” Clint said looking at the trapped look in Natasha’s eyes. 

“No. No he shouldn’t. He’s right. I need to get off my ass. Tell Tony to get Cho here. Tell him I need a physical therapist. I’m going to walk at my wedding.” Natasha announced with a determination that few would challenge and even less would doubt. When Natasha Romanoff put her mind to something nothing could stand in her way. 

Clint smiled at Natasha and he knew that his Natasha was back, that nothing was going to stop her from walking again, that sooner rather than later she would be back in the field. 

“I’ll go let Stark know. Banner is already getting stem cells shipped in. I’ll call Nick.” Clint said kissing her on her forehead and then leaving the two of them in the room by themselves. 

Peter wiped the stray tears from his eyes, “I’m sorry about my outburst. I haven’t been in control of my emotions lately.” He confessed. 

“Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing anymore.” She smirked. 

 

“Aunt Nat I’m home! You ready to start physical therapy?” Peter shouted into the living room where Natasha always waited for him. 

Peter got no response from Natasha and saw that the room was empty. “Jarvis, where is Natasha?” 

“I believe her to be downstairs in the lab trying out a new prosthesis with Mr. Stark and Colonel Rhodes. Agent Barton is also down with them.” 

“Thank you Jarvis.”

“Shit!” Tony yelled as the elevator doors opened and Peter came into the lab. 

“Shit? What’s shit? Are these things not working again?” Natasha yelled back at him from her place in between a set of bars, holding herself up by her arms. 

Every muscle of Natasha’s body was clenched and she was dripping in sweat. She had only been trying out the newest prosthetic for fifteen minutes at this point.

“Fuck! Barton hold her, we need to get her out of it, it’s malfunctioning.” Tony yelled running over. 

“I don’t need someone to hold me! I can do it just fine on my…” The prosthetic gave out and all of Natasha’s leg strength was gone, causing her to hit the floor. 

“Don’t touch me!” Natasha warned as she saw everyone in the room running over to help her up. 

Natasha flipped herself over and unstrapped herself from the machine that was attached to her legs. “If your name is not Peter than get the hell out of the room right now!” Natasha yelled throwing the machine at Tony. 

“Natasha I…” Tony tried but was cut off. 

“Stark I swear to god if you apologize I will circumcise you in your sleep! Get the fuck out of here!” She screamed. 

Tony looked at Clint and he nodded, if Natasha wanted everyone out then she would have everyone out. He wouldn’t dare to cross her when she was like this. As they walked out Clint patted Peter on the shoulder as he took a few tentative steps forward. 

Peter saw that Natasha the blood starting to run down Natasha’s leg and grabbed the first aid kit off of Tony’s desk. 

“You know I can’t feel it.” She whispered trying to wipe the tears from her eyes before he saw them.

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be taken care of.” He got out a bandaid and put it on. 

“You don’t always have to be strong Aunt Nat. It’s ok to need help sometimes.” 

Natasha sighed and looked away from him. “Out of all of the things that I’ve lost in my life. I never thought I’d lose my ability to walk. Out of all of the things that I thought would happen to me, I never thought that this would be one of them.” 

Peter stared at her, he had never seen her look so fragile or upset. She was just sitting on the floor incapable of asking for help to get up because she didn’t know what to do. 

“I guess you never know what you have until it’s gone.” she whispered as a stray tear fell from her face. 

“Even if you can’t ever walk again, which I don’t think is going to happen. You’re still my Aunt Nat, and you’re still the strongest and bravest woman that I know. It doesn’t matter if you can walk or not.” 

“You should be out on patrol, or studying for nationals. You shouldn’t be down here helping me try and learn how to walk again.” 

“No. I’m exactly where I need to be. I’m Spiderman. I help whoever needs help, I help old people, young people, rich, poor, superheroes, high school students. I help whoever needs my help, and right now, you need help, and I’m going to help you.” 

Natasha smiled and ruffled his hair. “When did you grow up, Peter?” 

“I…”

“Nat! Stem cells just got in. We can start the treatment right now if you want.” Bruce yelled from the door interrupting their moment.

“I’ll be up there in a minute.” Natasha called back to him without taking her eyes off of Peter who she could tell was trying to hide something from her. 

“I hate that damn chair.” Natasha whispered

“Then don’t use it. I can give you a piggyback ride.” Peter offered with a smile. 

“Peter, no.”

“Oh come on Aunt Nat. I’ve got super strength. Let me help.” 

 

“Hey have any of you heard from Nat or Peter?” Bruce asked as Clint was picking at his nail beds in the corner of the room while staring out of the window. 

“Hey guys!” Peter yelled running in with Natasha on his back. Natasha had a smile on her face for the first time that day and everyone else just stared at the two of them. 

“Whatcha got there Peter?” Rhodey asked, staring from his desk. 

“Aunt Nat.” 

“Tash, I would have come down and got you.” He whispered and kissed her on the cheek as Peter set her down on the exam table. 

“I know, but me and Peter had fun.” 

 

“Pete. Why did your teacher email Tony that he was going to be very disappointed that you wouldn’t be making it to nationals with the team?” Natasha asked as Peter helped her hold herself up on the bars, she was now only using them for support along with Tony’s contraption that helped her walk. 

“I have more important things that I need to be doing than studying for nationals. I would just be a drag on the team if I went.” He lied, he wasn’t going to nationals because he wanted to help Natasha with her physical therapy and studying was getting in the way of that. 

“Peter she knows you’re lying, it’s better if you just tell her the truth.” Clint said bringing Natasha over a water and correcting her form. 

“Peter. You don’t need to take care of me. I’m getting better, it’s just a slow process, Peter you need to go to nationals.” 

“Studying was getting in the way of what’s actually important. I’m not going to let that happen.” 

“Peter.”

“No Aunt Nat. You can’t convince me that going to nationals is more important than helping you get better because it isn’t. You are more important to me than some stupid competition. I don’t care that I worked my ass off to get to nationals, you are more important.” 

“Fine then. We’ll do both. When you’re at school I’ll learn about whatever it is you need to learn about for decathlon, when you come home we do this and study. Deal?” Natasha bargained. 

Peter smiled, “Deal.” 

 

“Nat, are you that you don’t want to use the prosthetic?” Tony asked trying to hand it to her. 

“Bruce said that it’s healing, that I should be able to walk, I can feel my legs again. I need to do this Tony.” Natasha demanded as Clint walked in, Peter was at school, she wanted to see if she could walk on her own before he got home. 

“Tasha it’s only been two weeks, and I know your serum is working, but” 

“No Clint there is no but’s. I need to do this.” 

Clint shook his head and relented. “Ok. We’re going to do this.” Clint grabbed Natasha’s hands and helped her down from the table. 

Natasha’s legs gave out, but Clint was holding onto her, he had her in his arms and let her regain her footing. “You’ve got it Tasha. I’ve got you.” Clint whispered wrapping his arms around her waist to give her more support. 

Natasha set her foot down again and it was more solid than before. She picked up her other leg and set it down in front of the other one, he legs were shaking and she was gripping Clint’s arms with everything she had, but she took a step, and another and another, until her legs finally gave out and Clint had to catch her. Clint was crying as she fell into his arms and he kissed her with everything that he had. 

“I’m gonna go. Pepper, Bruce. Bye.” Tony mumbled wiping away tears as Clint and Natasha’s kiss stretched on. 

“I’m so proud of you baby. I’m so proud.” 

“I love you Clint.”

“I love you too Tasha.” 

 

Clint rolled out of bed and walked to the bathroom, Natasha was still sleeping peacefully so he started to get ready before she woke up and would need help. His feet touched the cold tile as the water rushed over him. He stepped out of the shower and was met with the image of himself in the mirror, he hadn’t shaved in a few days and the bags under his eyes were jarring. He had spent the past three weeks doing nothing but worrying about Natasha. He looked at the ring Natasha had gotten him months ago for their engagement and he couldn’t help but smile. Things were going to work out, Natasha was starting to walk more and more, Peter was prepping for the decathlon nationals that were in a little over a month and the wedding was planned for the beginning of summer. He pulled on his boxers and jeans and ran the water to start shaving when he heard a thud from outside the door. 

“Tasha!” He yelled running into the room to find her on the floor. 

“Tasha baby, what happened?” He asked her helping her to sit up against the bed frame. 

“I was trying to surprise you. I knew you were shaving and I wanted to surprise you like I used to. I thought I could do it, but I guess I couldn’t.” Natasha sighed looking at her legs. 

“Hey. Tasha look at me. Look at me Tash.” He whispered pulling her chin so that her eyes met his. 

“You don’t need to surprise me, you already surprise me every single day that I’m with you. Every day I see you working to get stronger you surprise me and everyday I fall more in love with you. Everyday you show me the best that a human being has to offer, you show kindness, and love, and compassion after everything that you’ve been through and everyday it still manages to surprise me more and more. Natasha I love you so much, and if you were to never take another step again I couldn’t care less. You are the love of my life and you are the woman that I want to spend every single moment with, this whole incident changes nothing, because you are still Natasha Romanoff and you are still the woman that I fell in love with so many years ago.” 

“I don’t know what I’d do without you Clint.” 

“I love you Tash.” He whispered kissing her on her forehead. 

 

“Hey Aunt Nat.” Peter said walking into the kitchen and not really taking notice to anything, he had all of his books in his hands and couldn’t see her, but he heard her humming. 

“Hey Pete.” Peter looked around the side of his stack of books and all of them fell to the floor.

“AUNT NAT YOU’RE STANDING!” He screamed running up and giving her a hug while she was at the stove. 

“I sure am kiddo. I guess I just needed a little time away to get back on my feet.” She said wrapping him in a hug. 

“I’m so proud of you Aunt Nat.”

“Thank you Peter, for always believing in me.” She said kissing the top of his hair.

“I love you Aunt Nat.” 

“I love you too Peter.”


	5. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a gift to my best friend for her birthday and I hope you enjoy it.

“Jarvis. Can you call a family meeting for me? I need to go over our plans for the annual Stark Industries Charity Gala this weekend, just as a review.” Tony called out to him while sitting in a chair at the meeting table. 

“Right away sir. Am I to include Mr. Parker on this meeting as well?” The familiar voice asked. 

“Come on J. You know the answer to that.” He sassed him

“Yes sir. The call has been sent, they should be here in...”

“Che diavolo abbiamo fatto questa volta?” Natasha asked in Italian stepping out of the elevator in her workout clothes. 

“For once in our lives we didn’t do anything. We’ve got the Gala on Saturday.” Tony answered back with a chuckle. He realized how much better Natasha was doing, she had gotten back to working out again, he even caught her and Clint dancing in the kitchen one night when they couldn’t sleep, and now she was back to sassing him in Italian. Natasha was nearly back to her normal self and Tony couldn’t have been happier. 

“The Stark Charity Gala? Are you sure you want me at that thing?” She asked with a laugh and put her legs up on the table after she sat down 

“You’re one of the donor favorites to see. You’re a person of the people Natasha, you are very definitely coming!” Tony exclaimed, feigning hurt that Natasha would think he wouldn’t want her there. 

Natasha rolled her eyes and smiled, she never liked the charity events she did with the avengers, brought too much attention to her and put her in the company of too many people she had been ordered to kill at some point or another for her liking. 

Tony looked at Natasha in silence, he knew she didn’t want to talk about how she was doing, or how physical therapy was going, but he couldn’t help but notice the muscle mass Natasha had gained back in her legs. 

“Stark if you keep staring at me like that I will throw my shoe at you.” She warned with a smile.

“I wasn’t staring at you, you were just in my way of staring off into space.” He lied. 

“Whatever.” She chuckled as threw a ball of paper at him, he caught it easily and walked over to her and sat on the table next to her. 

“How’s the kid doing?” Tony asked her quietly knowing she wouldn’t open up about herself, but he could find out how she was doing through talking about Peter. 

“He’s doing better than I thought he would. I finally convinced him to start staying for the decathlon study sessions after school again. I brought him food a few times, they’ve been staying there until after seven everyday lately.” 

“That’s a lot of studying.” 

“They’re trying to win nationals Tony.” 

“How did he handle you needing to go away again in a few weeks?” Tony hinted at something that Natasha was trying to hide from as many people as possible. 

“Didn’t tell him yet.” She whispered looking away. 

“Didn’t tell who, what yet?” Clint asked walking in with a water bottle and handing it to Natasha with a kiss on her forehead. 

“Peter. About Natasha going to Geneva in a few weeks.” Tony answered for her. 

“Shut up Tony, I’ll tell him when it’s time.” Natasha sassed as she saw Cap arriving in the elevator. 

“I thought that we were going to Geneva?” Clint asked her. 

“We are. I didn’t tell Tony because I knew he would start in on the dirty jokes as soon as he found out.” Natasha sighed looking at Tony and waiting for the jokes to start. 

Tony’s lips crept up until they were into a full smile. “This your guys first trip out of the country since the incident?” He asked quietly. 

“Yeah. I mean all we are doing is going for the Security Council meeting as the representatives of S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha isn’t combat ready yet.” Clint whispered taking Natasha’s hand and holding it in his own. 

“I could still kick your ass though.” Natasha sassed as Rhodey walked in. 

“Natasha there will be no unnecessary ass kicking on your part until you are cleared for combat by S.H.I.E.L.D.” Rhodey sighed overhearing their conversation as he poured himself a cup of coffee. 

“They told me I wasn’t combat ready.” She whined to him. 

“Oh then their ass kicking would be completely warranted, continue.” 

“Thank you Rhodey.” She smiled as everyone else groaned.

“Really Rhodes you’re supposed to be on our side in this.” Tony complained as Sam walked in. 

“Why are we taking sides this time?” Sam asked sitting down across from Natasha. 

“They were debating if Natasha could kick their asses in her current state without being cleared for combat.” Steve recapped from his chair at the head of the table. He was looking down at the file that had the Gala security details in it. 

“My money is on Natasha. The fight would be close, but I have no doubt that Natasha would win.” Sam responded with a chuckle. 

“Steve care to weigh in?” Tony asked while Clint and Natasha smiled at each other. 

“Natasha.” He said briefly without looking up from the papers. 

“Oh come on really. She's got a handicap and I still can't beat her?” Tony complained. 

“It isn't looking down on you Tony. It just shows how badass Natasha really is.” Pepper said walking over to him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. 

Pepper winked at Natasha and squeezed her shoulder. Natasha and Pepper had been close since the Ivan incident at the Stark expo, well once Pepper believed that Natasha wasn’t going to kill her, Natasha has a way of inciting fear in people. 

“How you doing babe?” Pepper asked Natasha with a tease, they called each other pet names, in the beginning it was to confuse the reporters, but now it was normal for them. 

“Trying to keep the boys under control, but other than that, I’m good.” Natasha responded taking Clint’s hand again. 

“Rhodey why can’t we do that?” Tony asked letting his feigned jealousy show through to make Rhodey laugh. 

“Because then it would really confuse the reporters when you and Pepper announce the wedding. They stopped doing it in public awhile ago, you on the other hand wouldn’t.” Rhodey explained sitting down on the opposite side of the table from them. 

“Touche.” Tony said taking his seat back at the other end of the table, Pepper sat in the seat next to him and Clint sat next to Natasha.

“Is that everyone?” Steve asked finally closing the file folder and looking up at everyone. 

“We’re still missing the kid.” Bruce walked in and took the file from Cap, no one was going to say it, but they were all making sure that there was no vulnerabilities in the security system to make sure that Natasha and Clint were safe. The people who Natasha and Clint were chasing when they were on their mission were never caught and not even Tony could find them. 

“Where the hell is he? He’s never late to anything.” Tony asked checking the run down of the floors from the security footage. 

“He’s probably passed out in his room. He didn’t get in until late last night and he still had homework to do. He’s probably asleep on his desk with his face smooshed in a book.” Natasha chuckled pulling out her phone. 

“Mama spider let her baby out when he still had homework to do?” Tony gasped with fake shock, he had taken to calling Natasha that when she talked about Peter. 

“Shut up Tony.” She sighed as she put the phone up to her face. 

“Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the great society programs that Kennedy didn’t have the backbone to get through Congress!” Peter shouted out half awake as he put the phone to his ear.

“Hey Pete. Did you have a nice nap?” Natasha asked so that everyone would know Peter wasn’t ignoring them he just needed sleep. 

“Oh. Hi Aunt Nat. Sorry about that.” He laughed quietly trying to break the tension. 

“Come to the dining room, we’ve got a family meeting going on and your late.” 

“Oh my god. I’m on my way right now. I just. I’m on the way.” Peter rushed hanging up the phone as he jumped out of his chair and ran into the side of his desk. 

Everyone stared at Natasha and the small smile on her face as she looked at Peter’s contact photo on her phone. 

“Natasha. You got something to tell us?” Bruce asked looking at her and Clint holding hands. 

“No. Why?” She challenged looking up at him for the first time. 

“I mean I just, you, and Clint, and the kid. I thought maybe you know. You were I don’t know.” He stuttered gesturing with hands incoherently as Tony tried to hold back his laughs. 

“No. Bruce, we aren’t. You know this.” Natasha said rolling her eyes.

“Don’t worry Bruce. You weren’t the only one thinking it.” Pepper said speaking up.

“Pepper, what the hell? You’re supposed to be on my side in this.” Natasha exclaimed spinning in her chair to look at her. 

“I’m just saying that you’ve been acting very motherly towards Peter lately. Some of us thought you were giving hints that you and Clint were looking to adopt, or…” Pepper left it open to interpretation by everyone else at the table. 

“Guys. Let me make one thing clear here. I’m not pregnant because everyone seems to be dancing around that word, nor will I be. We are perfectly happy with how things are right now. Peter just needs…” Natasha let her words trail off as she lost her train of thought and Clint found it. 

“Peter needs a mother figure in his life and Natasha is more than happy to provide it to him. Pete needs stability where he can find it and all of us are willing to give it to him when we can. Me and Tasha and Tony are the ones that can easily do it. So we do, yeah, we are really close to Peter and yeah, we’re attached to him, but he’s a good kid. And if any of you here say that you don’t love him you’re lying to yourselves and you know it.” Clint finished for Natasha and getting slightly defensive at the turn the conversation had made. 

“Clint. They didn’t mean…”

“Hey guys I’m here. Sorry. I walked into my desk and then I got tangled in some of my web serum because I knocked the canister off of my desk when I hit it and then I fell. Sorry I’m late. What’s this meeting about again?” Peter asked walking in out of breath and not knowing what had just taken place. 

“Right. Now that everyone is here let’s get started on the details for the Gala.” Tony said standing up and hitting a button to turn on the TV. 

“The Gala is at the same place it always is. We arrive there separately as per normal because we don’t want everyone to think we are some weird crazy cult who all live together. Oh wait.” Tony continued pressing the button that showed the normal place. 

His cult remark won him chuckles from everyone as Peter sat there looking like a confused baby deer. Natasha picked up on it quickly but wanted to see if he could figure out what was going on for himself. 

“Next up is who is everyone going with. I would prefer everyone had either a plus one or a date, whoever you want I don’t care, just preferably someone who you are willing to take pictures with just the two of you throughout the night. We don’t want any relationships to be exposed that we would rather stay in the dark for now.” 

“OK list off. Clint and Natasha, I’m assuming that you guys are going together unless you guys are bringing plus one’s and then sneaking away later.” 

“Me and Clint are going together and I’m wearing my ring.” Natasha announced.

“You’re wearing your ring?” Sam asked with more confusion on his face than the first time he saw peter walking on the ceiling. 

“I figure it’s about time. Can’t hide it forever.” Natasha reasoned. 

“Natasha, do you really want to fall down that rabbit hole. I mean once you do there isn’t a way to go back.” Rhodey reasoned with her. 

“We’ve got four days to figure it out, we’ll have it decided by then.” Clint said looking at Natasha and communicating silently with her. 

“Alright moving on. Cap? You got a date?” Tony asked trying to draw the attention away from Clint and Natasha. 

“I’ve got someone in mind. With Bucky being in the ice still, she would be more of a plus one.” He answered remorsefully. 

“Checked off. Bruce? Anybody come to mind for you?”

“I uh. I was thinking about bringing Helen Cho. Not romantically of course, just as a friend. As long as that’s cool with everybody?” Bruce asked making sure that no one had any major disagreements with his choice.

“As long as you’re happy, I’m happy, big guy. Sam, you bringing Hill?” Tony asked as Natasha’s head whipped around at the mention of Maria. 

“You’re bringing Hill as a friend or as a date?” Natasha asked trying to find out if she needed to kick Sam’s ass for dating her sister without telling her, and then talk to Maria about it. 

“A date.” Sam said quietly looking away. 

“A first date? Or have you been on more that neither of you decided to tell me about?” Natasha asked with the frustration slipping through her voice and the anger mounting in her eyes. 

“It was Maria’s idea.” Sam confessed, shying away from Natasha and trying to look at Peter to help him out. 

“You and I will have a conversation later.” Natasha consented to let the meeting go on, but she was still staring daggers at Sam. 

“Oh. Have fun with that one Sam. Rhodes?” Tony asked moving on to try and save Sam. 

“Just bringing my sister. Carol is off in space again, she’s busy.” Rhodey shrugged as Tony put down that he was bringing two people, just in case Carol’s schedule cleared up. 

“Got it. Now for the million dollar question. Who are you bringing, Mr. Parker?” Tony asked turning the attention on to Peter who was still semi confused as to what was going on. 

“Me?” Peter asked with his voice cracking.

“Yes, Peter. You.” Tony responded. 

“Mr. Stark I don’t have a date. I shouldn’t even really be going. I mean Mr. Stark I’m just a kid. It’s not like I’d be going as Spiderman.” He refused. 

“Yeah I know, which is why I need to know if you have a date or if I’m going to have to find you one. I mean there’s got to be some girl that you like at school. Or a guy whatever tickles your fancy, I don’t judge. But you’re coming to the Gala, and I think I invited Ned as well, part of a youth minds of America initiative, something like that. He already has a date though.” Tony asked feigning ignorance even though he very specifically made sure that Ned was there so Peter and his date wouldn’t be the only ones under 30 there. 

“Mr. Stark are you sure. I mean, I don’t even know if I can get MJ to come, it’s really short notice.” Peter let slip and Natasha smirked. 

“Well with that smirk on your Aunt Nat’s face I'm sure the two of you can figure out something. Let’s move on to wardrobe. Pep you can take it from here.” Tony said sitting down in his chair. 

“Perfect. Natasha, your dress is already on it’s way it’ll be here tomorrow. Valentino designed it specifically for you, you and Clint will be matching slightly. Don’t worry it isn’t enough to look like you’re going to prom together, but it’ll work for the two of you.” 

“Don’t tell me it’s gaudy again, I can pull off a lot of things, but I can’t pull off a sparkling blue ball gown with diamonds on the neckline and sleeves. I looked like a walking jewelry store.” Natasha vented to which everyone at the table laughed at the memory of Natasha opening the box with her dress in it last year. 

“No. We stopped going to him after last year’s incident with both of our dresses. Valentino made this specifically for you and trust me, you’ll love it, I already saw and approved of it.” Pepper reasoned with a chuckle. 

“Thank god.” Clint whispered. 

“Ok. Moving on. Steve. Are you wearing Navy or black? We have both ready for you.” 

“I'll wear the navy. The one with the velvet, right?” 

“That's the one. It's on it's way. Bruce? The usual I would assume?” Pepper asked. 

“Yeah. I only like the one you get for me, so yeah.” Bruce said distracted taking a look over the guest list that was on the table. 

“Perfect. Sam?” 

“My grey suit. The one with the vest.” 

“You have that already, Tones? Do you think that's formal enough?” Pepper asked him breaking up the silent argument between him and Natasha that was going on. 

“What? Oh yeah. That's fine.” Tony asked only half paying attention and going back to his and Natasha's fight. 

“Rhodey me and you already discussed what you are wearing, so that leaves Peter.” Pepper said stalling for time as she flipped through papers. 

“Tony. Tony!” Pepper tapped him as she realized that Peter didn't have paperwork for an outfit for the Gala. 

Natasha and Tony stopped fighting immediately and both of them were paying full attention to Pepper. 

“We've got to have Peter's suit somewhere. I mean. I was looking at them.” Tony whispered to himself as he started looking through the papers. 

“Jarvis. Pull up all files relating to Peter's gala outfit.” Tony ordered still sorting through papers. 

“I must not have printed it that's all Pete. It's somewhere.” Tony explained as Tony got more and more anxious as the time ticked by and Jarvis still hadn't found anything. 

“Sir there are no files that exist relating to Peter's gala outfit, nor do they exist under any similar title.” Jarvis announced to the whole team and Natasha looked at Clint and then looked at Tony. 

Natasha saw the gears turning behind Tony's eyes and knew that he would be taking Peter to go out and buy the nicest suit he could for him. 

“Pete. Go down to your room put on something nice. Nothing extravagant, but maybe your jeans and a shirt and blazer. I don't care about your homework it can wait. Natasha, change and meet me in the car. Clint you do the same. Peter I'll wait here for you then we are going suit shopping.” Tony ordered. 

“No. Mr. Stark you don't have to do that. It probably just means that I'm not supposed to go to the Gala. I mean. Mr. Stark you don't have to do anymore for me. You already do so much for me that I could never thank you enough for it. You don't need to do this.” Peter tried to reason and help Tony relax. 

“Peter shut up. You're going to the gala. Now do as Tony says.” Natasha demanded. 

“Aunt Nat.” 

“Peter.” Natasha challenged. 

“Yes, Aunt Nat.” Peter consented and turned to leave and change his clothes. 

“Thank you, Peter.” Natasha called out to him to which he returned his signature smile to her. 

“If I didn’t know better I would believe that you and Tony were Peter’s parents.” Rhodey joked. 

Tony laughed and looked at Natasha who was blushing and looking at Clint. “We should get going. I don’t want to keep Peter waiting, get whoever we are going to, on the phone, we’ll be ready in twenty minutes.” Natasha whispered, all of the other Avengers were caught off guard by Natasha displaying embarrassment. 

Clint and Natasha took their leave and everyone looked at them. “Anyone else find that odd?” Sam asked the others who were still looking at the door that they walked out of. 

“I’ve seen weirder.” Tony sighed grabbing his phone off of the table and following Clint and Natasha. 

 

“So. Do you want to talk about it?” Natasha asked Clint quietly as she got out her clothes. 

“Not particularly, no.” He answered back quietly.

“Wait, what don’t I want to talk about?” He asked with a chuckle not knowing exactly what Natasha was talking about. 

“You getting all defensive about us taking care of Peter.” She whispered with a smile taking him into a hug. 

“Well he is our baby spider.” He whispered to her, calling him baby spider in russian. It was their nickname that they had given him and neither of them could shake the habit of doing it when they were alone. 

“Yeah. Yeah he is.” 

“Anyway you think that we could call him that in front of the team without everyone losing their minds?” Clint asked burying his face in Natasha’s hair. 

“What do you think me and Tony were arguing about earlier? He was calling him baby spider the other day and someone else almost overheard us.” 

Clint simply smiled and pulled away from Natasha, knowing that if he held her any longer they would be late. “Do you think we could take Peter on a trip one day, like as a vacation. Maybe take him to Budapest one day?” Clint asked as he pulled on a dress shirt and started buttoning it. 

“Maybe one day, maybe this summer, after the wedding, and the honeymoon.” Natasha smiled as she pulled on a black tank top.

“Do you think he’d like Budapest?” 

“I think you want to make a stop in Budapest on the way to Geneva and this is your way of telling me.” Natasha joked as she pulled her hair out of it’s braid. 

“We could make a stop, maybe for a day or two. Just to check on the house.” He hinted with a smirk. 

“We have to work and if we leave any earlier we are going to miss the decathlon competition. I’m not missing that and neither are you. Come on let’s go. We’re going to be late.” Natasha said pulling on a leather jacket and taking his hand. 

“How much do you think Stark is going to blow on Peter’s suit?” Clint asked taking her hand and walking out the door. 

“More than a downpayment on a house in California.” Natasha predicted as she pressed the elevator button. 

“Only the down payment? I was thinking he was going to spend more.” 

 

“Nat!” Tony called out as they stepped out of the elevator.

“Hi Tony.” 

“Here’s the plan. We’re having Happy drive. We’re only going to the best and I swear to god if they say anything about me bringing in Peter so last minute I’m going to walk out of there.” Tony nearly yelled showing Natasha the address on his phone. 

“We’re going to Jacobs? Tony we are going close to the last possible second, he isn’t going to be very happy with us.” 

“Well he can deal with it. He owes me a favor and I don’t want Peter wearing anything else because I can’t take him to Louboutin because he’s in Paris right now.” 

“Hey Mr. Stark. Do you think this is nice enough?” Peter asked stepping out of the elevator in a white v-neck t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and his grey blazer for academic decathlon. 

“Yeah that’s perfect kid. Get in the car, we’re kinda stressed on time.” Tony said opening the door for both Clint and Natasha to climb in. 

 

“Mr. Stark are you sure about this? I don’t really think I belong here.” Peter asked self consciously, they were in Uptown New York in the fashion district. Everyone around them probably had more money than Peter had ever even seen and he didn’t know what to do. 

“Kid you’re fine, just sit back and enjoy the ride.” Tony said as Clint found the door they were looking for and held it open for everyone to pass through it. 

“Peter’s freaking out with all of this, his senses are starting to go off.” Natasha whispered to Clint as they walked behind the other two and Tony introduced Peter to the designer. 

“You want to talk to him or you want me to take it?” 

“I got him.” 

“You know Tony. I know you bailed me out a while ago, but you want me to design an entire outfit from scratch for him in less than five days? Tony that’s nearly impossible.” The designer tried to reason with him, but Tony wasn’t taking no for an answer. 

“Marc, you’ve pulled off harder things before, and plus all you’re doing is finishing up the design we talked about last year, fitting him and putting it together for him.” 

“I’m not putting him in last years design. He needs something new and fresh. You didn’t tell me that he was this handsome when you had me drawing up designs.” Marc responded pulling out a tablet as Natasha walked up to Peter who she could tell was panicking and put her hand on his shoulder. 

“You’re his mom, right? I have an idea for a design but I want to make sure you and your husband are going to be wearing a similar color scheme.” Marc automatically assumed that Natasha was Peter’s mom and that her and Clint were together from the moment that they walked into the store. 

Natasha, Clint, and Tony all looked at each other trying to decide how they wanted to play what just happened, Peter was red in the face because he was embarrassed and shocked that anyone believed he could be the son of the Black Widow. 

“Yes, I am Peter’s mom. Let’s see what you have.” Natasha announced going over to the designer while leaving Clint to make sure Peter was ok. 

“Did Natasha really just do that?” Tony whispered to Clint as he was standing next to Peter trying to make sure he was ok without talking to him. 

“Trust me, there’s a lot more to this than just that, she’s been acting different lately.” He whispered back as Clint finally got Peter to look at him and they went to look at the different materials that were lining the walls. 

“Pete you ok?” Clint asked him quietly as Tony circled back to where Natasha was helping to design Peter’s suit. 

“Yeah. No. Yeah. I’m fine.” Peter squeaked. 

“It’s ok Pete, you’ll get used to it. This life has taken me places that I wouldn’t have even dreamed of when I was your age, you’ll adjust. It’ll be ok Peter.” Clint said wrapping his arm around Peter’s shoulders. 

“Like pretending to be my dad?” Peter asked quietly still not knowing what to think about Natasha playing the role of his mother. 

“Yeah Pete. Like pretending to be your dad.” He chuckled.

“Peter honey. Can you come over here for a second I want to see how this color looks on you.” Natasha called lovingly. 

“Yeah mom! Here I come.” Peter shouted, surprising himself at how easily the words came. 

Peter took the rudimentary blazer and the black dress shirt into the dressing room with a bow tie, they had come to a consensus on what looked good on him and Marc had thrown something together quickly to see how it looked on him. 

“He called you mom, you know that right?” Clint whispered to Natasha as she stood outside of the dressing room in case Peter needed help with his tie. 

“Yeah. I know.” Natasha whispered looking into Clint’s eyes. 

“How’d you feel about it?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“Mom. Can you help me?” Peter asked sticking his head out from behind the curtain. 

“Always, Peter.” 

Natasha took the ends of the tie in her hands and begin working on it. 

“Aunt Nat I didn’t mean to…” 

“I know Peter. 

“It’s just you said that you were..” 

“I know Peter.” 

“And I know you can’t…” 

“Shhhh. It’s ok, ребенок паук. Everything is ok.” Natasha whispered and kissed him on the forehead to calm him down. 

Peter instantly relaxed with Natasha’s hands on his shoulders and her reminder to him that everything was ok. He had no clue what she meant in Russian but he knew that everything was ok, that he was going to be ok. 

“How do you think I look Aunt Nat?” Peter asked looking at himself in the mirror. 

“I think you’re going to steal the show.” She whispered with a smile from behind him. 

 

“So. Let’s go over the plan one more time.” Natasha said looking up from her file at Peter who had just finished his bowl of cereal and looked like he was going to throw up. 

“I go up to MJ, who is in the academic decathlon room. I hand her the flowers I went and got this morning. And I ask her if she wants to go to the Stark Gala with me on Saturday night.”

“Perfect, what else do you do?” 

“I tell her that if she needs a dress because it is such short notice Mr. Stark will take care of it for her. And that I’m going to pick her up in a limo to take her to the Gala, so she doesn’t have to worry about getting there.” Peter stated looking even more nervous than before.

“And?” 

“And if she doesn’t want to go as a date that we could just go as friends, but I want to go with her because she’s really cool and funny.” Peter finished starting to blush again.

“See Peter. You’ll do fine. You’re charming, you’re funny, you’re sweet and you’re kind. Any girl would be lucky to go with you, she’s going to say yes, and she seems like a really nice girl who cares about you.” Natasha insisted trying to calm his nerves. 

“But what if she says no?” He asked with dejection. 

“Then I’ll take care of her.” 

“Aunt Nat!” Peter screamed.

“Peter. I was joking. It was a joke, if she says no, then we’ll find you another date. It’s going to be ok Peter.”

 

“So. What did she say? I haven’t heard from you all day and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.” Natasha asked without looking at Peter who had walked in behind her. 

Peter tried to his smile but couldn’t was he moved in front of Natasha. “She said she would go with me.” 

“See. I told you Peter. She wanted to go with you. I’m proud of you.” Natasha said putting her hand on the side of his face 

“Thank you Aunt Nat.” 

“Always Peter.” 

 

“Tony! Where is Peter’s outfit?” Natasha yelled as she stepped out of the elevator with her hair already curled and makeup partially done. 

“Happy is on his way with it right now. I just got off the phone with him. Natasha, we have at least an hour before Peter needs to start to get ready, we are fine on time.” Tony said putting down his phone and looking at Natasha. 

“I’m not the one worried about time, Peter is. He still has to pick up his date.” Natasha reasoned sitting down on the table next to him. 

“Natasha, I told you, we’re fine.” Tony said putting his hand on her leg. 

Natasha smiled and shook her head, her meticulously done curls stayed tucked behind the braids on the side of her head. 

“Has Clint seen your dress yet?” 

“Nope. I haven’t seen his suit yet either. We decided we wanted to be surprised.” Natasha said with a smile. 

“Anything else that’s going to be a surprise?” Tony teased. 

“Well we’re probably going to sneak away early and have some fun, but that’s the usual. Clint’s knows…” 

“Ok. That’s enough. I don’t need to know specifics, you’re like my sister and that’s just weird.” Tony cut her off, he knew that she was messing with him, but he didn’t want her to continue. 

“Hey Tony! The kid’s suit is here!” Happy called as he set it on a chair by the elevator. 

“Thank you, Happy!” They both called at the same time. 

“We’ve come a long way in seven, almost eight years.” Natasha commented looking at Tony. 

“Times change, so have we, nothing lasts forever, but this has been one of the best times in my life.” 

“Love you, Tony.” 

“Love you too, Nat.” 

“I’m going to take that down to Peter before he starts panicking even more than he already is.” Natasha said hopping off the table. 

“Pete can I come in?” Natasha asked knocking softly on his door. 

“Yeah.” He somehow got out through his ragged breaths. 

Natasha pushed the door open and saw Peter sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. 

“Hey. Peter. Look at me bud. Is everything ok? Look here Pete.” Natasha said pulling his hands away from his head and his guiding his head to look at her face. 

“Hey there Peter. There you go. It’s ok. You’re ok, Peter. I’m right here, tell me what’s wrong.” Natasha soothed running her hands through his ungelled hair. 

“I can’t…” He whispered shaking his head as tears started to fall. 

“You can’t what, Peter?” She whispered wiping away the tears. 

“I can’t go tonight. Aunt Nat. I’m not made for this, I’m just a teenager, no one knows my name or who I am. I’m surprised MJ even wanted to come with me tonight. Aunt Nat. I’m just Peter Parker, I’m not cut out for this.” 

“Peter, breathe honey. Take a deep breath.” 

“Now look at me Peter. You may not be cut out for this, you may not be ready to have camera shoved into your face and asked every question about your life. But you are not just Peter Parker.” 

“You are the man who helped me walk again, you are the man who reminded me that I had more to live for than just the Avengers, for just the next mission. You are the man who voluntarily became a hero after an accident because you knew there was a greater good at just 14 and a half.” 

“You are Peter Benjamin Parker and you are one of the strongest people that I know, you’re my nephew Peter, and you are Peter Parker, and you are one of the greatest things about this world.” Natasha argued with so much passion she had to hold back the tears of emotion so that they didn’t mess up her makeup. 

“I don’t know Aunt Nat.” 

“I do Peter. I know.” 

“Aunt Nat. I don’t even know how to dance.” Peter whispered shaking his head. 

“Then let me teach you.” 

 

“The kid ok?” Clint asked Natasha after she came down to their adjoining rooms, neither of them had put on their outfits yet. 

“Yeah. He’s ok. I had to teach him how to dance, and calm him down, but he’s ok now. He looks really good in his suit.” Natasha responded giving Clint a soft kiss. 

“Of course he does. You helped design it, you wouldn’t put your baby spider in anything he wouldn’t look good in.” Clint responded after he broke off another kiss. 

“I’m going to wear my ring tonight. It’s time to stop hiding, stop running, these are our lives now. I’m not going to let anyone else run them.” Natasha declared with her hand on Clint’s chest as she looked into his eyes . 

“Then let’s wear our rings.” He decided, cupping the side of Natasha’s face with his hands and pulling her into a longer and slower kiss. 

 

“Natasha! Peter’s about to leave. Do you want a picture with him?” Clint called out to her down the hall, Peter was standing right beside him and had more flowers in his hand. 

“Yeah. Here I come. One second.” Natasha called as Pepper zipped up her dress. 

“Thank you.” She whispered to her grabbing her phone off of her desk and going into the hallway. 

“Woah. Aunt Nat! You look amazing!” Peter called out to her. 

Natasha was wearing a low cut, off the shoulders, navy, velvet dress that had a slit going up the length of the side. Her hair was still curled perfectly and her red lipstick with smokey eyeshadow completed the look. 

“Speak for yourself Pete, that suit looks even better on you than I thought it would.” 

“Thank you for the suit again Mr. Stark, you really didn’t need to. And thank you Aunt Nat.” Peter said as Tony walked in. 

“Peter. Stop thanking me for the suit, I told you that once was enough.” Tony deflected as he examined the suit closer. 

“Jacobs could have done a better job, but it looks very nice for such short notice. That isn’t looking down on you, in fact without your looks the suit wouldn’t look nearly as good as it does on you.” Tony said straightening Peter’s tie just a touch. 

“Thank you.” 

“Pete, you’ve got to get your pictures done quickly if you don’t want to be late.” Rhodey said walking in and snapping a quick picture of Tony and Peter together. 

“Yes. Thank you Rhodey, let’s get the pictures of Peter by himself first.” Tony said taking a step back so everyone, including Jarvis could get pictures. 

“Natasha, you’re next. You are his Aunt Nat after all.” Tony announced. 

After Tony felt that he had enough pictures of Peter and Natasha in various poses, he ordered Clint in the picture and got some of them together as well. After he finished Tony opened his mouth to let Peter leave, but Natasha beat him to it. 

“Tony. Get in there for pictures with Peter.” She demanded taking his phone from him to get pictures of the two of them. 

After a few more pictures with various other Avengers Peter was finally in the elevator and on his way to MJ’s house. Natasha looked at the elevator with a smile for long after Peter was gone and everyone else, other than Clint, had dispersed.

“You’re proud of him aren’t you?” Clint guessed by the look on Natasha’s face. 

“It’s more than that.” Natasha finally looked away from the elevator to look at Clint, who looked dashing in his dark, navy, velvet, tux. 

“Yeah. I love him too.” Clint said with a chuckle and taking Natasha’s hand. 

“You look good by the way.” Natasha commented looking him up and down for the first time. 

“If I look good, then you look drop dead gorgeous, but that’s normal for you.” 

Natasha rolled her eyes and they walked back to their room so Natasha could get her heels, it was going to be one of the first times she had worn them for an extended period of time since the incident. 

“You think we’re going to be able to sneak away early again like we always do?” Clint asked with a smile. 

“I was already planning on it.” 

 

“Natasha! Natasha! Look over here for one shot please! Barton! Romanoff! Together please!” The press shouted in an uproar when Clint and Natasha arrived. Cameras flickered with light speed as Natasha looked over the crowd ensuring there was nobody in the crowd who looked like they weren’t supposed to be there. The press just thought that she was appeasing them, and so was Clint. 

“Anything suspicious?” She whispered in his ear, knowing he could see more than her just with his height alone. 

“Nothing yet.” He whispered back putting his left hand with his ring on her face to brush away her hair that had moved slightly which caused and even bigger uproar. 

“Looks like Peter and MJ got here already.” Natasha said with a smile while looking further down the red carpet. 

“Stark and Pepper are here too.” He said as Natasha gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

“Are we going that far in front of the cameras.” Clint asked her. 

“That’s up to you.” Natasha teased giving him a smirk. 

“Oh hell yes we are.” Clint said and then kissed Natasha on the lips in front of everyone that turned more heads then when Tony announced himself as Iron Man ten years ago. 

“Did your parents just kiss in front of every single news outlet and on live television?” MJ asked Peter as all of the cameras turned away from them and they looked with the photographers. 

“They aren’t… Yeah. Yeah they just did.” Peter said with only thinking for a second about what MJ said and accepting that Natasha and Clint, along with Tony were basically his parents and finally feeling at peace with it. 

After Clint and Natasha stopped kissing they made their way down to where Peter and MJ were. Natasha met MJ officially for the first time and instantly liked her. She treated Peter just like she always did and Peter heard a photographer ask a question. 

“Ms. Romanoff! Is this your son?” He called out to her, she ignored the question, but Peter didn’t.

“Yes this is my mom and he is my dad! Tony Stark is my uncle!” Pete called out to the reporter as Clint looked at Peter with both shock and pride. 

“Peter did you just?” Natasha asked him. 

“I figured that would start some fake headlines for a while, give you guys enough time to get married without the media or council noticing, and go to Geneva.” Peter said with a smile. 

“God kid, you’re amazing. Did you know that?” Natasha asked him over the yells of reporters that they all ignored. 

Peter smiled back and they kept walking down the carpet and into the building as Sam and Maria showed up with Steve and Sharon not far behind them. 

 

“So. Apparently, your nephew, Peter, takes after you.” Natasha said going up to Tony who was at the bar. 

“Oh, the fake headlines he started, yeah that’s everywhere already. Plus yours and Clint’s kiss is one of the top trending headlines on social media.” Tony said showing her the pictures on his phone. 

“What’s the ship name for us?” Natasha asked with a smile as Peter and MJ walked onto the small dance floor after mingling with social lites for a while and wanting a break.

“Right now the favorite is Clintasha. Got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Tony asked handing her a drink. 

“Yeah, it really does.” Natasha sighed looking at Clint who was talking to one of the military and S.H.I.E.L.D’s biggest weapons contractors. 

“God. You two are so in love it’s adorable.” Tony commented looking at Natasha’s face and seeing how in love she was. 

Natasha didn’t respond she just kept smiling at Clint and eventually shifted her attention to Peter and MJ. 

“Is the wedding still planned for the end of June?” Tony asked her quietly as he handed her a drink. 

“Yeah, we’ve got everything set, it’s going to be small, but our family is going to be there and that’s all that matters.” 

Tony chuckled and looked at the four kids dancing, he noticed Maria and Sam pressed together dancing, they both had smiles on their faces. 

“You know, Maria and Sam make a nice couple, maybe you shouldn’t chew him out just yet.” Tony offered as a photographer snapped pictures of the two of them together. 

“Too late. That ship already sailed.” Natasha said taking Tony’s drink and putting it off to the side with hers, they leaned in closer for a photo that the photographer asked for. 

“Why am I not surprised?” Tony asked taking his drink back and following Natasha’s gaze again. 

“Oh my god, stop just staring at him and go dance with him.” Tony pushed her and took the glass out of her hand, Natasha smirked back at him and walked over to Clint. 

“So, what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?” Natasha teased as she came up behind Clint who was standing at a table alone, the people he was mingling with had just left. 

“Well, you know, the dangers of our line of work lead us to extravagant places.” 

“Oh is that so? What if those dangers took us onto the dancefloor together.” She whispered pulling him closer to her. 

“I would like that. I would like that very much.” Clint said taking Natasha’s hand. 

Natasha pulled Clint onto the dancefloor and he took her in his arms. Her head was on his chest, his arms were wrapped around Natasha’s waist, it seemed like everyone else in the room had just disappeared. There was nothing else in the world that mattered to them other than each other at that moment. 

“Of all of the women, in all of the galaxies, I’m so glad that I get to spend the rest of my life with you. In every other lifetime, I would find you.” Clint whispered with his head resting on top of hers and taking in every inch of her he could. 

“You’re the best thing to ever happen to me, Clint. There’s no one I’d rather marry than you.” 

“Hey Peter. You’re parents are pretty cute, I can see how you turned out to be the romantic that you are.” MJ teased, looking over at Clint and Natasha calling Peter’s attention to them. 

“Yeah. They’re pretty great.” He chuckled while looking at them and seeing their long time internet friend behind Clint and Natasha. 

“Hey. Is that Shuri?” MJ asked noticing the princess as well. 

“Yeah, I think so. Do you want to go talk to her?” Peter asked as Natasha glanced over at him and he knew she wanted to talk to him. 

“I’ll go talk to her, you go talk to your mom.” MJ said standing up and leaving Peter to find Natasha. 

“Hey Peter.” Natasha said as he walked up to her, Clint turned around to get them both a drink. 

“Hey Aunt Nat.” 

“Want to dance?” Natasha asked him with a smirk on her face. 

“I hope you don’t mind if I step on your toes.” Peter whispered as he put his hand on Natasha’s waist and she put her hand on his shoulder. 

“I’ll never mind Peter.” She whispered with a smile and tears in her eyes.


	6. 5

“Aunt Nat! Have you seen my. Never mind I found it!” Peter yelled to her from the living room. Natasha was sitting in the kitchen looking over the report she needed to give to the United Nations in four days and was keeping an eye on Peter as he finished packing for the Academic Decathlon competition. 

Natasha smiled and went back to reading. Clint came upstairs and sat next to her, he laid a picture on top of her reading and let her look at it. 

“Which magazine?” She asked him quietly. 

“People, Pepper is trying to fend off their asking for an exclusive interview with the newest superhero family.” 

“I feel like illegitimate son is a little harsh of a title if they want an exclusive interview.” Natasha jeered.

“Plus if we were to have had a kid in Budapest, like they are claiming Peter is a product of, we would have made very sure that he was legitimate.” Clint added as he took the file from Natasha. 

“Do they even know his name?” Natasha asked reexamining the cover of the magazine. 

“They know it’s Peter, but I’m almost positive anyone who would want to come after him is smart enough to know that he isn’t our actual son.” Clint stated bluntly, knowing that Natasha was thinking it, but wouldn’t say it out loud. 

“Aunt Nat, Uncle Clint. I’m ready to go.” He said coming up to them at the table with his suitcase in hand. 

“Do you have your suit in case anything happens?” She asked him, she stood up and adjusted his yellow blazer. 

“Yeah, but I don’t think anything will this year. Everything is going to be just fine, Aunt Nat.” 

“Well I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t check in on you, now would I?” She asked making sure everything about him was exactly how she remembered, Peter hadn’t been farther away from her than 50 miles since her incident and she was nervous about him leaving, especially with the odd headline popping up about his parentage since the gala. 

“Aunt Nat. Don’t worry about me, ok? Just go have fun in Geneva. I love you.” He said taking her into a hug and setting down his suitcase.

Peter pulled away from her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He was hiding his competition jitters and his nervousness about Natasha leaving again from her so she wouldn’t worry so much about him. 

“I’ll see you in two weeks. Don’t do anything that will land you on the news, I want to show you guys my medals when I get home!” Peter yelled as he walked backwards into the elevator. 

Clint chuckled to himself as the doors closed and the Elevator descended. “I’m going to miss him while we’re gone, we haven’t spent this much time away from him since the incident.” 

Natasha smiled, she picked up the picture of her and Peter dancing from the night at the gala, “Maybe we should think about moving.” Natasha suggested, seemingly randomly. 

“Moving? Where? You want to move out of the tower when Peter still lives here, Natasha are you ok? Do I need to call Bruce?” 

“I didn’t necessarily mean without Peter.” 

“Babe. Stark barely convinced Peter to move into the tower because he felt that he would constantly be imposing. He isn’t going to move in with us, Tash.” 

“I know. I just needed someone to tell me that so I could get the idea of it out of my head.” 

“Natasha?” He whispered. 

“I don’t know Clint. I don’t know what’s been going on. I just know that I want him close to me. I thought. I don’t know. It sounds idiotic when I say it.” 

“Tash don’t hide what you’re thinking. Tell me what’s on your mind.” 

Natasha sighed and looked away from Clint. “I thought that maybe if Peter came and lived with us for a little bit, we could all settle down. Peter could have more stability than just the constantly rotating cast of the tower. He could get good at being a hero, we could train him more often, make sure he’s safe. Maybe we could be a little family.” 

Clint looked at the pain on Natasha’s face as she tried to explain her feelings. He tried to hold her hand, but he just rested his hand on top of hers. 

“How about this. We bring it up to Tony and see what he thinks, then we go to Geneva and we make sure that this is what we want. We can bring it up to Peter when we get back, if we decide that this what we want and what would be best for Peter.” 

“Do you want this?” Natasha asked him quietly. 

“Natasha, I’ve wanted this since I saw the look on your face when he called you mom. I just don’t know if this will be the best move for all of us. We would be moving out of the tower, we’ve called this place home for years. Peter will be moving away from everything he finally got used to. If we do this, this will mean two major moves for him in less than a year. We would also be taking him away from the rest of the family.” 

“I know, Clint. I just. I don’t know.”

“Tasha. Are you wanting to retire from S.H.I.E.L.D?” Clint asked, putting the million dollar question in the air. He could tell that something had been off with her since the incident and he believed he had finally pinpointed the issue. 

“Why would you think that?” Natasha asked defensively. 

“Tash. You don’t have to lie, if you want to retire, we can retire. Maybe after the wedding we could move out to the farm, adopt a kid maybe. If you want, only if you want. Peter could stay with us during the summer. We could…” 

“Clint. I don’t want to retire. I don’t think. I just need a little bit of space.” 

“Nat. Are you nervous about the wedding?” 

“Clint. I just need some space. I’ll be in my room if anyone comes looking for me.” 

Natasha walked out of the room without looking back. Clint was left sitting on the couch without any idea what he had done wrong, his nerves about the wedding had finally gotten to him. Peter was on his way to nationals and he was worried about him, but he knew everything would be fine. Tony beefed up security after last years incident and was having someone constantly keep an eye on Peter since the gala. 

After a few minutes Sam came into the room and noticed him still staring at the wall trying to figure out what he did wrong. 

“Clint. You good?” Sam called out to Clint as he grabbed something out of the fridge. 

“Yeah. I’m good, man. Tasha and I just got into an argument, that’s all.” 

“What happened?” Sam asked sitting down with the orange juice bottle in his hand. 

“Well. Peter left for the decathlon, then Tash started acting weird and I asked her about it, then she got mad, and left.” 

“Weird like normal Natasha weird, or like she was going to murder you in your sleep, weird?” 

“Neither. She was talking about moving out and taking Pete with us. Like she wanted to start a family. She was being so, not Natasha.” 

“In what way?”

“Natasha wasn’t being rational. Or logical in any way. I don’t know what’s going on with her.” 

“Maybe she wants a kid.” Sam suggested looking Clint up and down. 

“Sam, you know she can’t have kids.” 

“Yes. I know that, but maybe she’s scared. She’s starting to settle down, things are changing for her big time. I mean Clint. She technically died two months ago. She couldn’t walk for almost a month, she still isn’t cleared for combat.” 

“Yeah, but. This seems different, there's… I don’t know, Sam.” 

“You getting cold feet?” Sam asked, looking at Clint fidgeting with his ring. 

“No. Absolutely not. Nat, she’s my everything, I don’t know how to function without her.” 

“Are you worried that she’s getting cold feet?” 

“Me and Tash have done this dance before. I asked her to marry me before, I was bleeding out during a mission, Natasha had a major head wound, I doubt she even remembers. She told me yes, but I never brought it up again and neither did she. This time though, we actually planned the wedding, I gave her the ring. If she decides this isn’t what she wants then, we’ll figure it out then.” Clint confessed. 

“So you are worried she’s getting cold feet.” 

“No. Well. Yeah. A little.” 

 

Natasha sat on her bed and stared at the clock. Peter would be getting off the subway right now, the team bus would be leaving in thirty minutes, but she wanted to give him time with his teammates before she checked in on him. 

Natasha played with her engagement ring, she couldn’t help but feel it on her hand. It wasn’t much, but it was beautiful and elegant. Clint had it handmade for her, designed it himself, from what Tony told her, he’d been holding onto it since New York. Clint knew she hated flashy jewelry, so he made sure her ring was anything but that. 

There was always something about Clint that made him so much different than everyone else. He never saw her as what she really was, he always saw her as something more. Even the first day they met, he believed she could be something greater than what she was. He taught her how to love, taught her the gentleness of the world, showed her what life truly could be. Clint always told her he had a thing for strays, he took them in whenever they needed a home, he was the one who Natasha found a home in, who she fell in love with. 

Natasha felt her phone buzz and saw the picture of Peter bent over a canvas at his desk, drawing. His tongue was sticking out and he had his earbuds in. Natasha snapped the picture of him before he noticed her. Natasha thought of the picture he was working on and how they hung it in the New York house together. She answered his call after staring at it for no longer than a few seconds and put the phone up to her ear. 

“Is everything ok, Pete?” 

“Yeah. No. Everything is fine. It’s just. The kids at school, since the Gala. They actually think that you’re my mom, and I don’t know what to tell them. I mean. Aunt Nat, you’re so important to me, and so is Uncle Clint, but I just. I don’t know what to do.” Peter rushed in a half whisper. 

“Peter. What do you want to tell them? Not what you think you should do. What do you want to tell them?” 

“Aunt Nat. You’ve been there for me since Aunt May left, you, and Mr. Stark, and Uncle Clint, you’ve become like my parents. When I heard your heart stop, it was like the world stopped spinning, I felt the same way I felt when Aunt May left, when my mom died. I’m about to spend five hours on a bus with my friends and I can’t dodge the question for five hours. I’ll eventually let it slip that I love you like my mother and you mean more to me than words describe.” 

“Peter…” 

“No, please just let me finish. If I don’t tell you right now I’m afraid I won’t ever tell you.” 

“My Aunt May, never let me call her mom, no matter how much I thought of her as my mother. But you Aunt Nat, you were so comfortable with me doing it, and you willingly called me your son, when you could have just cast me aside. You’re always there for me, and all I want to do is call you my mom, because you have become like my mom.” 

“I love you, mom. I really do.” 

“I love you too, Peter. I love you like my son, because you have become like my son.” 

“So I can tell the team that you’ve become like my mom?” Peter asked quietly as he heard Natasha sniffle on the other end. 

“I would be honored if you told your team that I’m your mom.” 

“I love you.” 

“I love you too, Peter. Now go have fun on your trip. Call me when you get to D.C.” 

“I will mom.” Peter whispered, finally feeling the weight lifted off of his shoulders. 

Natasha pulled the phone away from her face and ended the call. She noticed the screen was damp and wiped the tears from her face. 

Clint was standing in the doorway watching her. He stared at her smiling face and brought her over a box of tissues that was sitting on the dresser. 

“Hey Tasha.” he whispered. 

“Hey Clint.” She said, taking a tissue to wipe away the stray tears. 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have walked away earlier. I should have been honest with what’s been going on.”

“Well what’s been going on?”

Natasha looked away from him, they may have been together for 13 years, but showing her feelings was never easy for her. He put his hand behind her ear and brushed her hair away from her face. 

“I’ve been scared. I don’t know how to explain it. Since Brisbane, I don’t want Peter to leave my side, I barely want you out of my sight. You said something to me when we were on the way back, and I wasn’t really there, but you told me, I had to stay. You told me that there was more for us. You told me that I couldn’t leave you, that I couldn’t leave the kid.” 

“You remember that?” He whispered so quietly that had Natasha been any further away she wouldn’t have heard it. 

“It was the last thing I remember before the world went black, before I saw you in my drug induced state.” 

“Tasha?” 

“Before I woke up in the tower, you were there. I saw you. You were begging me to stay, but there was this warmth pulling me away from you. When I looked away from you, all I saw was a beach with two empty chairs, it looked like Navagio. You begged me to keep looking at you, your voice held on to me. You kept me from walking onto that beach.”

“Baby, come here.” He whispered as he opened his arms for Natasha to climb into.

“Every damn day since I’ve woken up I’ve been terrified that it will be my last day ever seeing you. Everyday I wake up wondering if Peter will ever make it home from school, if I’ll ever get to see Tony and Pepper get married. Every single day, I am terrified that my life will be stripped away from me again, and I will have nothing more than what I had when I joined S.H.I.E.L.D.” 

“That’s never going to happen Tash. I’m never going to leave you, honey.” He whispered in her ear as he ran his fingers through her hair, careful to avoid the tangles. 

“But I could leave you, Clint. I could leave Peter, and I never want to do that. I finally found my place in the world. I have a family now, the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D, Tony, Maria, Fury. And I have a fiance that I love more than life itself, who has helped me through everything, who walked through a room full of bullets to save my life, who I don’t know what I would do without.” 

“Look at me baby. I’m never, ever, going to let anything happen to you again. There’s nothing in this galaxy that will ever come between us, not aliens, not monsters, not gods, not magic, nothing Nat.” 

“I won’t let you go through anything alone, you’re never going to have to worry about losing me. Natasha, you aren’t going to leave me anytime soon, we’re going to live until we’re 100, well until I’m 100, and I barely remember your name, and our hair is all grey.” 

“But, what if we don’t. What if…” 

“No, Tasha. No what if’s, since when did you stop living in the moment. We live for today, and we live today to its fullest. We aren’t promised a tomorrow, but we make today the best we can. But you and I have something that’s stronger than villains, than anything that will ever try and tear us apart. You are mine Natasha Alianova Romanova and I am yours. That’s what these rings mean, they mean that nothing will tear us apart. Nothing.” He said as he pressed his forehead onto hers and let his left hand match up with hers. 

“I love you, Clint.” 

“I love you more than anything, Tasha.” 

 

“And Peter. That’s everyone on the trip. Cynthia, take her away!” Mr. Smith shouted to the driver as Peter sat in his seat next to Ned. 

“Everything ok back home?” Ned asked him quietly as Peter pulled a stack of flashcards out of his backpack. 

“Yeah, everything is great. I just had to talk to Natasha about something really quick.” 

“Did it have anything to do with the fact that you’ve changed her name in your phone to mom?” He asked quietly pulling up the google doc of notes on his computer. 

“Yeah, yeah. It had everything to do with that. Did you hack into my phone?” 

“No. She just text you, and the name on it was mom. I wouldn’t disrespect your privacy like that without your knowledge dude. That’s just a dick move.”

“Thanks, Ned. I appreciate the boundaries we have set.” 

“Anytime man. Anyways. I made a spreadsheet. As long as everyone scores above an 800 in their worst subject we are a shooing to win nationals, and as long as everyone gets a perfect score on both their speech and interview.” Ned went on blabbering as the rest of the team started listening in. 

M.J. caught Peter’s eye and silently asked him if everything was ok. She had started to read him better than ever before, they had now gone on a total of three dates. Peter smiled back at her and handed her a stack of flashcards so she could start quizzing the team. 

“Ned, we shouldn’t be shooting for the lowest possible score, we should be aiming for the highest score, and then waiting to see where we fall in the rankings. We are winning again this year, I don’t have a doubt in my mind about it.” MJ announced, handing out decks of cards to everyone. 

Everyone in the group nodded and Ned quickly closed the spreadsheet. “Now. Before we start studying, I want to make sure everyone on the team is on the same page. So. You guys get to ask whoever, whatever you want.” 

“MJ, what if we don’t want to answer a question?” Abby asked in the back. 

“Doesn’t matter, if we want to win, we have to trust each other entirely. Nothing is off the table, but, I know all of you have basic common decency, so, don’t be an ass.” 

“I’ll give an example.” MJ started. “Ned. Is it really true that you hacked into the Pentagon?” 

“I didn’t hack into the Pentagon, why does everyone think I hacked into that. No I hacked into the FBI.” 

“Ned, if you could keep the talk of illegal actions down, I don’t want to have to report anything this trip.” Mr. Smith called as he graded papers in the front of the bus. 

“Yes sir, sorry Mr. Smith.” Ned shouted back, as the rest of the group started asking each other questions. 

“So, Peter. Is it true that you’re actually the son of THE Black Widow and Hawkeye?” Abby asked as everyone stopped talking to hear his response. 

“Yeah. They actually are my parents.” 

“Bullshit Parker. Prove it!” Jordan yelled as he flipped through flashcards. 

“Language, Jordan.” 

“Sorry Mr. Smith.” 

Ned looked at Peter as he scrolled through the camera roll on his phone. Peter pulled up a picture of him, Natasha, and Clint that they had sent to Director Fury, about three days ago, he turned his phone around and everyone saw. 

“I still don’t believe it. I mean, they both have light colored hair, that Punnett square doesn’t work out, not with your guys facial features at least.” 

“I’m adopted.” 

“They chose you?” A girl named Alex asked.

“It was more a mutual choosing. They’re my parents, I love them just like you guys love your parents.” 

“Where do you live?” 

“We spend a lot of time at Avengers Tower, but we have a house in New York.” 

“Is that why you disappeared last minute at last year's Nationals?” Abby asked. 

“Yeah. My mom went missing at work, my dad didn’t want me anywhere I could be in danger.” 

“Guys, this isn’t the Peter show. Either start asking other people questions, or we can get to studying.” MJ announced, throwing more flashcards at everyone. 

 

“Hey Peter, can I talk to you for a second.” Mr Smith asked, pulling him away from the rest of the group as they walked toward their room assignments.

“Yeah, Mr. Smith. What’s up?”

“That speech you’re going to give. Are the judges going to believe that? I believe it, because I know you and I know it’s true, or for the most part is, I know you had to blur details. The people, you’re going to give this to have never met you, haven’t had a conversation with you ever, so will they understand it?” 

“I worked really hard on this, if the judges don’t believe it I don’t know what to tell them. This is my life, there’s no way around it.” 

“I know, Peter. There’s just a lot riding on this, maybe you want to go with your states speech.” 

“Mr. Smith, if I don’t do this speech there isn’t even going to be the possibility of me getting a perfect score. I have to do this.” 

“Alright. You win, Peter. You better have this perfect.” 

“Thank you Mr. Smith. I won’t let you down.” 

 

“Hi. Can you please state your name and ID number for us.” An older woman with glasses asked as she looked at a clipboard. 

“Hi. My name is Peter Parker and my ID number is 2319, which is really weird because it’s also a Disney movie easter egg, but anyways. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” 

“Nice to meet you as well Mr. Parker. I would go through the rules, but you’ve probably already heard them enough that it’s redundant at this point. Your time will begin as soon as you start, you may go when ever you are ready.”

Peter took a deep breath and waited for the second hand on the clock to strike exactly six, whenever he started his speeches halfway through the minute he did better. 

“My name is Peter Parker, and I technically am an orphan. My parents died when I was four, I don’t remember very much of them, but I know they loved me. When my parents died, I went to live with my Aunt May, who had legal custody of me until I turned 15 and a half. On my 15th birthday my aunt learned that she would be needing to move to Europe for work, and that she could no longer support me financially since my uncle’s life insurance policy ran out.” 

“Now. You’re probably thinking that in the next two and a half minutes I’m going to tell you some sob story that will force you into giving me a perfect score out of pity, but that isn’t what is going to happen. I’m simply giving you backstory so the rest of my actual speech makes sense.” 

“When my Aunt May left for Europe, my boss took legal custody of me. I work for Stark Industries and I was adopted by Mr. Tony Stark. I’ve lived with him for almost a year now, well not really with him. I live with my Aunt Nat. I first met her when I travelled with Mr. Stark to Europe for an important company meeting.”

“My Aunt Nat is really what this speech is about. She brought me into her home, and she took me away from the chaos that was my life, she taught me how to drive, she taught me how to speak Russian. She’s taught me everything I would ever need to survive and thrive in a world filled with cameras, celebrities, and technological innovations, that I am helping to create.”

“Every night she is home, my Aunt Nat makes sure I get to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour, makes sure I’ve eaten something, and always tells me that she’s proud of me.” 

“About two months ago, my Aunt was in one of the worst car accidents I’ve ever seen. She was rushed to the hospital, no one thought that she was going to make it through surgery, the doctors also didn’t think that she would ever wake up if she survived the surgery. A week later she woke up from her coma, smiling and joking as if nothing had happened, but something major had happened. My Aunt had lost her ability to walk.” 

“Now, because you guys don’t know my Aunt Nat, you don’t know how devastating this was for her. She’s one of the most active people on the planet, she runs for fun, boxes to relieve stress, and danced ballet professionally and practiced every day. Not to mention the fact that she is also getting married at the end of this month.” 

“This was devastating to her, it would be to anyone, but most people would take their paralyzed state and give up, or find other hobbies and ways to exercise, but not my Aunt Nat. She spent an entire month learning how to walk again. I was helping her with physical therapy every day, I almost quit the Academic Decathlon team because it was more important for me to help her than to study and I knew if I stayed on the team, I would only make it harder to win.” 

“My Aunt didn’t let me quit though, but that’s pretty obvious because I’m standing in front of you right now. Every day while I was at school she would learn the material I needed to study for decathlon, when I got home, I would help her with physical therapy and we would study together, at the same time.” 

“My Aunt Nat is my hero, she took a wild leap of faith by taking me in. She’s become the most important person in my life, she’s become like my mother. My Aunt Nat is the strongest and most loving person that I know, and I now have the distinct pleasure of being able to call her my mom. Her and her soon to be husband have officially adopted me in the eyes of the law, and I’ve never found a person who the title of mom fit so perfectly.” 

“Thank you.”

 

“How did your tests go Peter?” Ned asked as they walked into their hotel room to change for the Superquiz event. 

“I know I did fine. I’m just worried. It’s fine, it doesn’t matter, we just have to focus on Superquiz now.” 

“Yeah. I think mine went really well, but I messed up on one of the science problems, that’s probably going to keep me from getting the perfect score on that test, I also couldn’t remember who killed Kennedy.” 

“Officially, it was Lee Harvey Oswald.” 

“Peter, what do you mean officially?” 

“It’s classified. I can’t tell you. Ned, you have my tie.” 

“Oh. That’s right, my bad.” Ned tossed Peter his tie and Peter handed over the other one. 

Peter buttoned his blue dress shirt and started weaving his tie around his neck, Ned saw Peter focusing with everything her could on making the knot perfect. 

“Peter, I’m sure your speech went perfect. If the judges didn’t like it, that’s on them. You had the best speech out of all of us, you talked about something that matters to you, you made it personal. None of us could do that.”

“Yeah. I know, I just wish I did it better, if I don’t get a perfect score, I’m screwing the team over. Mr. Smith was probably right to tell me to do my states speech.” 

“No, he wasn’t, Peter. You gave the best speech you could. The only way for us to win is for everyone of us to put our best effort forward. That’s what you did. No one is going to blame you if you don’t get a perfect score.” 

“Thanks Ned.”

“Don’t worry about it, Peter. Now come on, everyone will be waiting for us if we don’t hurry.” 

“We have 30 minutes until we absolutely have to be in the lobby, what are you talking about?” 

“Oh. There’s going to be a surprise in the competition hall, we have to hurry.” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“It’s classified.” Ned shouted as he ran out of the room. 

“Asshole!” Peter shouted, grabbing his suit jacket and chasing after Ned. 

 

“Mayfield High School, representing the pride and joy of Nebraska.” A man announced as a group of students walked across the room, receiving polite claps, but nothing else. 

“Midtown School of Science and Technology, the reigning National Champions and record holders of the highest cumulative score in Academic Decathlon history!”

“Let’s go Pete! That’s my boy!” Clint yelled from the crowd. 

Peter turned his head to wave at the crowd and saw Natasha, Clint, Tony, and the rest of the Avengers standing and cheering for him and his team as they made their way to their table. Natasha had the biggest smile on her face and Clint had his arm wrapped around his as he shouted out Peter’s name. Tony stood above them and clapped his hands, he had his sunglasses on, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. 

“Holy shit!” Peter whispered to Ned. 

“I told you it was classified.” Ned teased as they sat down. 

“No Ned. You don’t understand. If I fuck up in front of them, I’m screwed. I have to be perfect, if I’m not…” 

“Peter, they just wanted to be here to support you. They don’t care if you screw up or not. They’re your family, remember?” 

“Right. Right. You’re right.” Peter agreed, he couldn’t hide the apprehensiveness in his voice as his palms started to sweat. 

 

“The the refracted path taken by light entering a different medium is…” 

Peter’s buzzer went off signalling he would be the one from his team to answer the question, he had answered about ten correctly before this question, but his cheering section was still poised and ready to shout when he answered correctly. 

“What is the principle axis?” Peter responded and immediately he closed his eyes, knowing he had gotten the question incorrect. The rest of his team put their heads in their hands, Peter immediately looked to Natasha and Tony to see their reaction. 

“Dammit, Pete.” Tony whispered as soon as he heard Peter’s answer. 

“That is incorrect. The correct answer is Fermat’s principle of least time.” The judge announced, to which the team they were facing off against cheered. 

Natasha found Peter’s gaze along with Tony. “It’s ok Pete. You’ll have it next time.” Tony shouted into the crowd as Natasha mouthed that everything was going to be ok. 

There were two more questions until the end of the tournament and it would be decided if Peter and his team would win, or if it would be their opponent taking home the title and the glory. 

Midtown had the lead by one. Their opponent got the next question right. Now it was all up to the final question to decide who would win the title. The two teams scores, were identical. The entire outcome rode on this one question. 

“If both parties can negotiate, then externalities should be able to be solved…” 

The light to Peter’s buzzer went off, this was his chance to redeem himself, his back was hunched as if the weight of everything that happened that year was on top of him. 

“What is the Coase theorem?” Peter asked with more confidence than ever before. 

Tony had his hand on Natasha’s shoulder, Clint was gripping Natasha’s other hand as she stood with her hand on her chin. 

“He got it.” She whispered. 

“That is correct.” 

“Midtown School of Science and Technology wins the Superquiz and the Academic Decathlon National championship for the third year in a row. Congratulations, Midtown!” The man nearly yelled over the screams. 

“Peter, you did it!” Ned yelled, wrapping his arms around him. 

Peter held Ned close to him as Peter finally exhaled. All of his hard work had finally paid off and he couldn’t be happier. 

“We did it! We did it!” 

The stands started to clear, parents and coaches were consoling the losing teams as Natasha ran down the stands to where Peter and his team was. Clint and the rest of the team were trailing behind her, but Natasha weaseled her way through groups of people to find who she was looking for. 

MJ was holding the trophy and some of the other parents who came down for the competition were already hugging their decathletes. Natasha stood on the edge of everyone and waited for Peter to turn around and spot her. 

“Mom!” He yelled, running into her arms. Natasha was nearly knocked over by the force of his hug. 

“I’m so proud of you, Peter. I’m so proud.” Natasha whispered to him as he held onto her seemingly for dear life.

“I couldn’t have done it without you. You’re the reason I’m here. Thank you, mom. Thank you so much.” 

Clint had come up behind Peter and Natasha at this point and ruffled the top of Peter’s hair as Peter’s head was still buried in Natasha’s shoulder. 

Peter pulled away from Natasha finally and wrapped his arms around Clint. He smiled and returned the hug, and gave Peter a kiss on the top of his head. 

“Thank you for everything. Thank you, dad.” 

Clint held Peter tighter, he never thought that Peter would think of him like that and couldn’t help but love how it felt to know that Peter loved him like a father. 

“I love you, kid.” Clint whispered. 

Peter pulled away and found Tony talking quietly to his teacher, shaking his hand and then heading back over to the group. Peter held his hand out for Tony to shake as Tony came up to him. 

Tony swatted away Peter’s hand and enveloped him in a bear hug. Peter melted into Tony’s arms for the first time and nearly froze. 

“I’m proud of everything you’ve done, kid. I love you.” Tony whispered as tears welled up in his eyes. 

“Thank you, Uncle Tony.” Peter let slip as more blood rushed to Peter’s cheeks. 

“You’re welcome, Nephew Peter.” Tony joked, trying to ease Peter’s anxiety and still trying to reciprocate Peter’s feelings. 

“Let me get in on this lovefest!” Sam shouted, wrapping his arms around both Tony and Peter.

“Sam! You’re making it awkward!” Steve shouted through his laughs, Peter glanced over and saw his suitcase in his hand. 

“Yeah. Whatever, I guess you’re right. We’ve got reservations to make anyway.” Sam said pulling away and walking back over to Steve. 

Natasha and Clint were standing in the middle of the scene, holding hands, Natasha gave Ned a hug and thanked him for his help. She also offered for him to head back to New York, but he refused as he looked over at Abby. 

 

“Pete. Can you please explain to me what you were thinking when you answered the Fermat question?” Tony asked from across the table as he passed a bowl of food onto Bruce 

“Tony. Not now, we’re celebrating.” Clint called as he grabbed bread out of a bowl next to Rhodey. 

“No. Hold on, I seriously need to explain this.” Peter answered with a mouth full of food, he paused momentarily to swallow. 

“Ok. So remember the time we were in the lab and we were experimenting with Fermat’s principle and how it aligns with the theory of time?”

“Of course I do. Then I remember specifically telling you that the Principal Axis is simply the line that light travels along.” 

“Well. I misheard you, then I wrote it down on a flashcard wrong and it got stuck in my head. Right before the Superquiz though, Ned corrected me, but when I answered the question I had the wrong conversation going on in my head.” 

“So. What I’m hearing is, you had a brainfart that lasted for two months.” Tony summed up as Natasha started smiling. 

“Yeah, pretty much.” 

“Boys, could we table the brainfart discussion for another time. I think Natasha has something she wants to say.” Pepper spoke up as she caught Natasha’s eye. 

“I was going to let the boys finish talking first.” Natasha said, trying to avoid the look that Sam was giving her. 

“Seems like it must be important. Natasha, you got something to announce?” Bruce asked. 

“Sam, you give me that look one more time and you and Maria won’t be able to have kids.” Natasha threatened. 

Clint and Tony stifle their laughs as Rhodey kicked Sam under the table, forcing him to look away from Natasha. 

“Back to the topic at hand. I wanted to let everyone know the final details of the wedding.” Natasha smirked as she saw the smile on Maria’s face from the corner of her eye. 

“Tony. You’re my best man.” Clint blurted out suddenly. 

“What?” Tony asked, flabbergasted. 

“We weren't going to have a best man, or any groomsmen, because it was so hard to choose, but. Tony, you’ve been the older brother to all of us, I mean, you literally gave us a home. Me and Tash decided that if you weren’t in the wedding it would be criminal.” Clint quickly explained. 

“Well, since you’re insisting, yes. I will be your best man, Clint.” 

“Thank you, Tony.” Natasha smiled. 

“Now. Pepper, I hated having to choose just one of you to be my maid of honor so, I didn’t. I’m leaving it up to you guys to decide, I really couldn’t choose.” Natasha admitted. 

“Maria. It’s you. No. Don’t argue. You’re her maid of honor.” Pepper decided as soon as Natasha stopped speaking. 

“Pepper. Don’t be rash, if you want it, you can have it.” Maria, tried. 

“Maria. No. Shut up and take it. You’re her sister, I’m not going to argue about this anymore, I’m not going to be your maid of honor Natasha. Sorry.” Pepper announced forcing Maria’s hand. 

Maria rolled her eyes, but when everyone looked away she mouthed thank you to both Pepper and Natasha. 

“Now. The most important thing we have to say tonight is who is going to be the ring bear.” Clint announced, shifting the attention away from the girls, who were having a small moment. 

“Peter, you’re the ring bear.” Natasha murmured.

“Me?” He asked with his voice cracking. 

“Well, you are our baby spider.”


End file.
